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IRELAND 

AN ENEMY OF THE ALLIES? 



IRELAND 

AN ENEMY OF THE ALLIES? 
(L'Irlande — Ennemie ?) 



TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF 
R. C. ESCOUFLAIRE 




NEW YORK 

E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 

681 FIFTH AVENUE 



alo V 



v<f 



Copyright, 1920, 
E. P. DUTTON & COMPANT 



All Rights Reserved 



Printed in the United States of America 

APR -I 1920 
•©CU5654.T2 



PREFACE 

The Irish Question is an international impos- 
ture. 

Ireland, in order to justify her rebellion and 
treason, makes out that she is oppressed. Nowa- 
days the oppression of Ireland by England is 
a myth, and a very feeble one at that. Macaulay 
said : 

"The Irish, on the other hand, were distin- 
guished by qualities which tend to make men in- 
teresting rather than prosperous. They were an 
ardent and impetuous race, easily moved to tears 
or to laughter, to fury or to love. Alone among 
the nations of Northern Europe they had the sus- 
ceptibility, the vivacity, the natural turn for act- 
ing, and rhetoric, which are indigenous on the 
shores of the Mediterranean Sea." 

Ireland therefore possesses the power of play- 
ing upon our emotions as she chooses, but the 
accusations which she makes are so startling, 
and so contrary to all we know of British rule 
in other dependencies, that we must be careful 
to verify her statements. 

Professor Pearse, one of the ringleaders of 
the Dublin rebellion, who was shot the follow- 



vi PEEFAOE 

ing week, stated on the eve of the rising: "It 
will fail in its direct object, but the moral effect 
before the whole world will be immense, and 
form a glorious chapter in Irish history." The 
Professor believed that the world was very sim- 
ple-minded, easily taken in by resounding 
phrases and theatrical poses. Possibly he was 
not mistaken. We need not mock, it was more 
successful than we realize. 

Ireland has always harped upon this note with 
great effect. How many Frenchmen and Amer- 
icans have been caught in the snare? Yet what 
Pearse was asking those rebels to do was noth- 
ing less than to stab us in the back when our 
fate was in the balance at Verdun, and when 
our soldiers were writing in their blood at Vaux 
and Douaumont the most heroic page in the his- 
tory of France. It were well, then, if his scheme 
should not reap all the success which he antici- 
pated. 

The rebellion was followed by punishment; 
mercy was shown to the rank and file, the ring- 
leaders were executed, and Ireland wailed with 
grief and decorated their graves with flowers. 
George Bernard Shaw, an Irishman who owes 
his reputation as a humorist to the amusing 
paradoxes of his race, dared to write : "Nothing 
in heaven or earth can prevent the men shot tak- 
ing their place beside Emmet and the Manehes- 



PEEFACE vii 

ter martyrs in Ireland, and beside the heroes of 
Poland and Serbia or Belgium in Europe." This 
comparison is an insult to noble little countries, 
and the reason of this these pages will endeavor 
to show. 

There is an amusing side to this, that is, to 
see the German press waxing indignant at the 
destruction of a small nation, and Austria — save 
the mark ! — applauding a national revolt. 

We should do well to be very cautious of the 
word Nationalism; it covers such a multitude 
of artificial claims. In its name we have 
Egyptian "patriots" in the pay of the wire-pull- 
ers of the Committee of Union and Progress — 
and such progress! — who want to purge their 
country of Western corruptions and restore the 
benefits of Ottoman Kultur. Of late years, too, 
we have had Hindu nationalists demanding 
Home Rule for that immense peninsula with its 
hundred different races. Who are they? Young 
Bengali lawyers without a mandate, claiming to 
represent 200,000,000 illiterate and apathetic 
peasants, without counting 100,000,000 Moham- 
medans who loathe them, and are quite satis- 
fied with English rule, and would not tolerate 
a change. When shall we do justice to these ill- 
timed jests? 

It is certain that before the war opinion in 
Latin countries inclined towards the small com- 



viii PKEFACE 

plaining nation, not going very deeply into the 
matter, as usual, but applauding these tirades, 
and a priori suspecting England, the silent, who 
is such a bad defender of her own cause. An 
Englishman always believes that his cause is per- 
fectly plain and needs no comment. 

"Will you defend yourself?" says Meredith's 
Princess Ottilia to her friend, after listening to 
the diatribe of a pretentious Boche. 

"Well, no, frankly, I will not. The proper de- 
fense for a nation is its history." * 

No doubt, but it is not known to everybody. 
By the time an Englishman makes up his mind 
to reply to his accusers he has generally ten or 
twenty years of calumny to contend with, and 
some of the dirt will stick. 

It is no easy matter to destroy a legend, and 
if the Irish Celts had not given us such stinging 
blows during the war we should probably have 
gone on for a long time believing them to be 
inoffensive and unfortunate victims. They may 
be humorists, but they overestimate our credu- 
lity. They ask for applause. If their recent at- 
titude, by directing all eyes towards them and 
attracting closer observation, ends by confound- 
ing them, and bringing them in more kicks than 
halfpence, and if they are on the way to lose the 
last and best of their friends in America, they 

1 The Adventures of Harry Richmond, chapter xxviii. 



PEEFACE ix 

have no one to blame but themselves. This 
frightful war will have had one good result; it 
will have taught us to recognize our friends and 
know our enemies. 

There is no doubt that the verdict will be a 
severe one, and unfortunately many good and 
noble men will suffer from this national crime; 
among them will be those Irishmen who recog- 
nized and fulfilled their duty — and let me say at 
once that there are many such, several hundred 
thousand. Mercifully there are still many 
sound hearts in Ireland, and this indictment is 
not directed against them. 

We shall denounce the clergy who have gone 
astray, but we shall be most careful to exclude 
the English Eoman Catholics, both priests and 
faithful, whose conduct during the last four 
years has been irreproachable in act and word. 
They do not condone the Irish bishops; on the 
contrary, they suffer through being compromised 
by their folly. 

We shall have hard words for Irish politicians, 
but we shall not forget that, in every party, in 
Ireland as elsewhere, there are men of good faith 
and perfect loyalty. 

But besides them, and in spite of all these 
reservations, these distressing facts remain — 
the falling-away of a nation, the hostility of a 



x PREFACE 

people in whose generosity we believed, the lying 
pretexts with which we were to be deceived. All 
this we shall try to describe and explain. 

Need I say that the writer is in no man's pay? 
Some will insinuate that he is, in the bewilder- 
ment of seeing their Anglophobe prejudices thus 
clearly and categorically demolished. 

Is this work, then, not impartial? Let us un- 
derstand one another. Impartial in its point of 
departure certainly; but frankly partial in its 
conclusions. After I had examined this ques- 
tion, weighed words and deeds in the balance, I 
was perforce obliged to take sides. To try to 
please everybody and never ruffle preconceived 
ideas is not always the way to find out the truth. 

On this subject I shared the illusions— and the 
ignorances — of almost all my fellow-country- 
men, until one day an Irish-American friend, who 
died an heroic death eight years ago as one of 
the pioneers of aviation, handed me Sir Horace 
Plunkett's Ireland in the New Century, and 
warned me that it contained many surprises for 
me. These were so great that I was fired with 
the desire to go into the matter more deeply, 
and to complete the investigation by the study 
of men and books — past and present. The first 
result of this was a contemporary study of the 
social and political condition of Ireland in 1909. 



PKEFACE xi 

Having since retained, needless to say, the 
deepest interest in this question, and followed 
from day to day, at the very heart of the Anglo- 
Saxon Empire, the incidents of this endless quar- 
rel, I was often distressed to see the way the 
French public and press either attributed the 
blame and responsibility wrongly, or else, 
amazed at Ireland's misguided folly, gave up 
trying to understand the business, and relegated 
it to the mysteries of censored war-news. 

Unfortunately even those who were sent to 
Dublin on missions of inquiry or propaganda 
were sometimes taken in by the plausible 
speeches of the local orators. Doubtless Froude's 
fiction would be denounced to them, Froude, 
who falsified history by literature and preju- 
dice, and, instead of showing Ireland in her true 
colors, crowned her with the palms of injured 
innocence. Then the more accurate and honest 
work of Lecky would be shown to them. Lecky 
was the great historian of eighteenth-century 
Ireland, an epoch during which Ireland played 
indubitably a creditable part. But were they 
told that Lecky, in the face of contemporary 
events, became the opponent of Home Eule just 
as Froude had been? 

Were our friends thoroughly conversant with 
all the complex facts of the question? I know 
that some of them, unfortunately, returned hav- 



xii PREFACE 

ing formed hasty and ill-considered judgments, 
actuated more by sentiment than reason. This 
book has been written in the humble hope of 
enlightening them a little. 

R C. E. 

Paris, 
August 15th, 1918. 



CONTENTS xv 

CHAPTER VIII 

THE INSURRECTION AND ITS CONSEQUENCES 

Rebellion in Dublin — General Maxwell arrives — "Moral 
effect" — Mr. Birrell resigns — Rebel recriminations — 
Mr. Lloyd George called in — Mr. Duke Chief Secretary 
— Mr. Redmond's difficulties — Deadlock again — Mr. 
Lloyd George's attitude — The Convention — Sinn Fein 
and the Convention — Warnings from America — Mr. 
Redmond's death — Points in dispute — Chimerical fac- 
tories^ — Hopes and wishes 199-237 

CHAPTER IX 

CONCLUSIONS AND FORECASTS 

Sir H. Plunkett's hopes — Irish claims — American ignorance 
—America begins' to see — Mr. Stead's opinion — Still far 
from Home Rule — Germano-Irish Society — The "Wild 
Men" — Folly and Vanity — Clerical intimidation — Offi- 
cial optimism — A negative conclusion — Useless conces- 
sions — Kuno Meyer 238-268 



IRELAND 

AN ENEMY OF THE ALLIES? 



IRELAND— AN ENEMY OF 
THE ALLIES? 

CHAPTER I 

THE IRISH ENIGMA 

Why is Ireland not on our side? Why should 
this little country, athirst for independence, re- 
serve her sympathy for predatory Germany? 
Moreover, she wants us to take her part ; can we 
do so? 

Ireland has not the excuse that she did not 
understand the facts of the case. She could 
read in the original all the Foreign Office docu- 
ments, Sir Edward Grey's dispatches — never was 
diplomacy more frank and outspoken, more loyal 
or more damaging in its obvious good faith. 
Ireland had to choose between that and the out- 
rageous depravity, the disgusting cynicism, of 
the Wilhelmstrasse. She chose ill. She is al- 
ways accusing her "stepmother" of breaking this 
promise or that. But in this case it was Ger- 
many who dishonored her oaths, and England 

l 



2 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

who risked the whole of her Empire to keep her 
sworn faith. And Ireland stood aloof and was 
critical — but of England only. "Can England's 
motives ever be pure?" she mutters. 

War broke out. 

On August 1st, 1914, Ireland was on the verge 
of civil war, for there were two Irelands: one, 
consisting of three-quarters of the island, had 
just obtained its charter of autonomy, the Home 
Kule Act, which only needed the royal signature. 
The other part, that of the Ulster Protestants 
in the north-east, had sworn a solemn covenant 
two years before, that it would not submit to 
this law; in it, Ulster read her death-warrant, 
and that literally. She was ready for resist- 
ance ; for months she had been arming and drill- 
ing and having military maneuvers with great 
seriousness. She was prepared for any sacri- 
fice in order to keep her place in the Empire, in 
spite of the Imperial Parliament. Her army, 
consisting of 100,000 picked volunteers, had just 
been reviewed by its leader, Carson. 

Everything was ready and the die was cast. 
These men expected no quarter from the Irish 
Nationalists, to whom they had been delivered 
by the party bargains of the English Radicals; 
they were determined to sell their liberties 
dearly. 

No less determination was shown by the op- 



THE IRISH ENIGMA 3 

posing side. The Nationalists had also raised 
an army; they had the same number of volun- 
teers, but far less well armed; but, to make up 
for this, it is true, they had the support of the 
Imperial Government and Parliament. Ulster 
had no one to rely upon but herself. 

The forces of Redmond and Carson are face 
to face. A few days later blood will flow. Yes, 
but in another theater and in vaster floods. The 
trumpet sounds another blast, another call to 
arms. A truce to childish games, to the minia- 
ture war of Irish factions. The world is bowed 
under a greater anguish, and on the lurid hori- 
zon arise the symbols of Right, Justice, Liberty, 
Respect for Treaties, Defense of the Weak. 
Fighting for these on the plains of Belgium, the 
Irish Volunteers, Catholic and Protestant, would 
not betray their own cause. Are these not the 
very principles which they invoke daily against 
one another? 

Their leaders realized this. Carson and Red- 
mond instantly gave orders to their partisans 
to suspend hostilities, and give their services to 
the greater cause, the cause which embraced 
theirs. Carson sent his men "to defend the Em- 
pire," that was all ; Redmond made reservations, 
he offered his brigades "to defend the shores of 
Ireland." But that was better than nothing. 
What response was there? Ulstermen could not 



4 IKELAND— AN ENEMY? 

hesitate. They had armed themselves in order 
to preserve by force their union with the Em- 
pire, and the Empire asked of them a greater 
sacrifice, and they did not hesitate. They had 
to choose between three incentives: fear of op- 
pression by a Catholic majority; traditional 
hatred of those who were to become their mas- 
ters — selfish incentives if you like ; sincere devo- 
tion to the Empire — which meant putting their 
own grievances on one side, and giving up all 
safeguards, sending their sons to be massacred 
in Europe, and finding themselves afterwards 
disarmed in the hour of their own peril. Their 
devotion won the day, but we must remember the 
alternative, for we owe Ulster a debt of honor 
for her choice. 

And what of the rest of Ireland? I wish I 
could say that she did not hesitate either. But 
it would be false. When, in September, 1914, 
John Eedmond, their leader at that time, great- 
hearted and clear-sighted, pointed out their duty, 
a certain number of National Volunteers an- 
swered the call. But the others, the majority, 
waited. 

Yet the first victim to protect was Belgium, 
innocent, without a doubt, chivalrous, heroic and 
Catholic too, which is an important point to an 
Irishman. Yet Ireland made no move. 

A month later we are no longer dealing with 



THE IRISH ENIGMA 5 

iniquitous diplomacy, but with crimes which dis- 
gust the basest minds; the whole world had just 
heard of the atrocities of Aerschot and Dinant. 
Louvain was in ashes, its priests taken to Ger- 
many in cattle trucks or massacred on the Brus- 
sels road. Many Irish priests had been edu- 
cated at the University of Louvain, hundreds of 
Belgian priests and nuns had arrived in Ireland, 
fleeing from violation and murder, telling of 
their tortures, and crying for vengeance. Will 
Ireland rise? Yes, but not as you would ex- 
pect. 

All the "National Volunteers" who had sulked 
during their leader's appeal made up their minds 
at last ; they denied Redmond and went to swell 
a new army, the "Irish Volunteers," opposed 
alike to Redmond, England, and the Allies. In 
the first month of the war the German press in- 
formed us that these Irish had their ambassa- 
dor at the court of Potsdam — no less a person 
than Sir Roger Casement ! x 

In December a tragic voice was heard, crying 
aloud for vengeance; Cardinal Mercier, whom 
young Irish priests had known and revered at 
the School of Philosophy in Louvain, solemnly 
affirmed the barbarism, the revolting cruelty of 

1 Casement's "mission" was mentioned in German news- 
papers I found in Belgium as early as August 25th, 1914. 



6 IKELAND— AN ENEMY? 

the invader, the ignominies inflicted upon the 
priests and nuns of Belgium. 

Was that enough to convince the Irish clergy? 
On the contrary, several of the Bishops attacked 
England, our ally, with redoubled vituperation. 
Other things hardly interested them. 

In 1915 the German atrocities came nearer 
home. On a cold spring morning, poor, 
drenched, miserable, exhausted creatures were 
landed on the Irish coast, while not far off the 
bodies of children were thrown up by the tide. 
A wave of horror swept over the world; the 
Lusitania had been torpedoed. Was Ireland 
roused? Hardly at all. 

Civilized men howled execration, the brutal 
Boche from Berlin, New York, and Madrid re- 
plied with satanic laughter. This is only the 
beginning, it seems; the submarine has shown 
what it can do, we shall see more of its handi- 
work. Vce metis I the wrath of Germany is ter- 
rible. This is by no means displeasing to some 
of the Irish, since they are now the allies of Ger- 
many. 

In the outrages which the Bernstorff gang per- 
petrated in New York, you will often find Irish- 
men in very sinister company. But it does not 
seem to worry them. 

Little by little, as Germany developed her sub- 
marine campaign, a rumor spread; the most 



THE IRISH ENIGMA 7 

profitable coups always seemed to come off some- 
where near Ireland. Would not her lonely, de- 
serted shores, with myriads of inlets, creeks, and 
reefs, mysterious caves and outlying islands, 
make admirable bases for supplying the pirates? 
Was this hateful suspicion far-fetched? Many 
Irishmen did not appear to resent it. Are we 
not at war, and is not England the enemy? 

Gradually the rumor began to crystallize. 
Here a chatterbox could not hold his tongue, 
there a patriot bragged too loud ; but still there 
was not enough evidence for a magistrate to con- 
vict. It took two years to find the proof ; it was 
forthcoming at the rebellion in 1916, much to 
the confusion of the incredulous, and at the time 
of Casement's trial. Rebel Ireland had official 
dealings with Admiral Tirpitz's pirates. 

During the following months the contrasts 
which have been a salient feature of Irish history 
for the last twenty-five years became still more 
accentuated; on the one hand the English gov- 
ernors doing their utmost to cajole and satisfy 
Ireland, on the other every effort being made to 
discourage them. Elsewhere I have emphasized 
this attitude; the war in no way altered it. 

Locked in a struggle which became ever more 
deadly, pitted against a foe more dangerous than 
she had foreseen, Great Britain gave up her com- 
forts, her pleasures, habits, and cherished tra- 



8 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

ditions. The all-powerful Trade Unions im- 
perium in imperio were asked to suspend their 
privileges. She sacrificed all her liberties by the 
Defence of the Eealm Act, of which one clause, 
the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, will 
show the significance. Hundreds of minute reg- 
ulations and burdensome taxes created havoc in 
every sphere, in commerce, industry, agriculture, 
amusements, drink, restaurants, railway jour- 
neys, rationing, requisitions, etc. And to al- 
most every regulation, however necessary and 
far-reaching, would be appended a clause or sim- 
ilar amendment, "this regulation does not apply 
to Ireland." 

The result was what might have been expected 
(one need only read a few pages of the history 
of Ireland to guess what would happen) : the 
more concessions were made, the greater grew 
the rebel army; the more favors Redmond ob- 
tained for Ireland, the less gratitude she showed, 
and the more she repudiated him. Redmond, 
poor man, who had once succeeded to ParnelPs 
prestige, and had led the Nationalist party for 
a quarter of a century, was now a king without 
a kingdom. He ruined himself on that day when 
he dared to say to his fellow-countrymen, "Eng- 
land has a right to your help, give it to her." 
His convictions as to the origin of and responsi- 
bility for the war never varied; his brother, 



THE IKISH ENIGMA 9 

William Kedmond, M.P., died a noble death at 
the head of an Irish battalion, and his son fought 
on our side. 

But the National Volunteers of 1914 did not 
follow them ; they went over to the opposite camp 
and became the "Irish Volunteers'' of Sinn Fein 
who attempted the rebellion of 1916. 

This metamorphosis did not take place in a 
day. The Government was warned twenty 
times, by the police, by questions in the House, 
by the press, and by the magistrates, of the plot 
which was being hatched and of the growth of 
extremist views in Ireland. But the Govern- 
ment maintained its usual deliberate lofty se- 
renity; its only Irish policy was laissez-faire. 
At the slightest sign of trouble it turned to the 
Nationalist politicians, its allies, and the offi- 
cial representatives of Ireland. They were most 
optimistic. "Never fear, trust Ireland, give her 
her head, do not irritate her, study her psychol- 
ogy, sympathize with her, you will see all will 
be well." They forgot that their constituents 
were becoming less and less disposed to endorse 
their promises. 

Towards the end of 1915 a Belgian Kecruit- 
ing Commission visited Dublin, in order to enroll 
several categories of refugees. The Lord Mayor 
gave them a kindly reception at the Mansion 



10 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

House, speeches of mutual admiration were ex- 
changed, unimpeachable sentiments, for the bene- 
fit of the public and the reporters. But in pri- 
vate our friends received curious impressions of 
their visit, and were able to see how the land 
lay. It was quietly suggested to them that they 
should be broadminded and not worry the refu- 
gees too much, nor pull the chestnuts out of the 
fire for the old ogress over the way. Then fol- 
lowed whispered confidences about the said 
ogress — Caillaux's methods, in short. I 

According to the laws of hospitality, no pro- 
tests nor expressions of surprise could be made ; 
the puzzled visitors had happened upon a state 
of mind of which they had had no warning. If 
this were the attitude of the well-disposed Irish, 
to whom Mr. Asquith at Westminster gave tes- 
timonials for their civic virtue and their loyalty, 
what must be the attitude of the masses of whom 
Redmond was no longer the leader? 

One of our friends had an inkling the follow- 
ing day. Some English officers invited him to 
go for a motor run into the beautiful Irish coun- 
tryside. Before they had gone far they came 
upon a strange spectacle — crowds of young fel- 
lows, thousands of them wearing caps or soft 
felts ; words of command ; distant rifle shots ; In- 
dian files going along the hedgerows; patrols 



THE IRISH ENIGMA 11 

signaling on the crests of the hills ; motor-cyclist 
scouts. 

"What's all this?" 

"Oh, nothing — a Sinn Fein field-day." 

"In broad daylight? So near Dublin? Is the 
Government not alarmed?" 

Silence on the part of the English officers, who 
shrugged their shoulders and smiled uneasily. 

"You had better ask Mr. Birrell or Lord Wim- 
borne; they will give you reassuring explana- 
tions." 

The crisis reached its height in 1916. After 
having enrolled 3,000,000 volunteers, Great Bri- 
tain asked her sons to 'make a supreme effort — » 
conscription. The more desperate the struggle, 
the more inexorable became the need for it. 
Every day her resolution was strengthened by 
some fresh horror; delenda est Carthago. Par- 
liament consented, the nation submitted, and 
conscription was passed. 

But the Government made a fatal mistake, 
having forgotten everything, yet learnt nothing. 
As though all the recent concessions to Ireland 
had not failed in their aim and left her more in- 
tractable and more hostile, this final favor was 
granted her, she was exempted from conscrip- 
tion. A little blackmail was enough to enable 
John Redmond, alarmed at the disappearance of 
his popularity, to veto that. 



12 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

Redmond and his friends added promises t( 
their threats: 

"Conscription will exasperate Ireland, you wil] 
need more soldiers to enforce it than you wil] 
ever raise from Irish conscripts. Try to under 
stand Ireland, O clumsy Saxons! Show trusl 
and sympathy, and you will get far more. Lei 
us manage her, do not annoy her, we will speal 
to her — she has a generous soul and will un 
derstand." 

Mr. Redmond did his best in all good faith 
The Viceroy asked for a minimum of a thou 
sand recruits a week, so that he might say thai 
Ireland had done her duty as the sister island, 

Redmond had reckoned without his host; no1 
only had everybody quite made up their mind 
to laugh at him behind his back, but Dr, 
O'Dwyer, the notorious Bishop of Limerick, wenl 
farther and forbade his flock to serve under the 
hereditary enemy, recalling the fact that the 
Vatican, the mouthpiece of divine wisdom, had 
remained neutral during this worldly conflict, 
In his Pastoral the Bishop grew bolder; he not 
only abused England, but every member oi 
our diabolical alliance; Serbia was a criminal 
and we were every one of us tricksters. Pool 
Serbia, writhing in agony, Monsignor O'Dwyei 
thanks Heaven for having punished you. . . . 
It will be as well to quote him fully : 



THE IRISH ENIGMA 13 

"Then see the case of the small nationalities 
on whose behalf many people have believed that 
the war is being waged. 

"What good has it done for them? What part 
have they played in it except that of cat's-paws 
for the larger nations that used them? Belgium 
delayed the German advance for two weeks and 
gave time to the English and French armies to 
rally. For her pains she has been conquered and' 
ruined. Servia began the war by an atrocious 
crime, and as reparation for it might weaken 
Russia's aims in the Balkans she was encouraged 
to resist. She, too, has played her temporary 
role and has followed in the wake of Belgium. 
Montenegro is the next to go ; and it would seem 
that the great belligerent nations look to them- 
selves only, and use their weaker neighbors for 
their own purposes. 

"This war is not waged by any of the Great 
Powers as a quixotic enterprise for lofty ideals. 
'Small nationalities' and other such sentimen- 
tal pretexts are good enough for platform ad- 
dresses to an imaginative but uninformed peo- 
ple, but they do not reveal the true inwardness 
of this war. 

"All the belligerents have had practical and 
substantial aims in view. France wants her 
lost provinces of Alsace and Lorraine; Russia 
wants Constantinople; England wants the un- 
disputed supremacy of the sea and riddance from 
German commercial rivalry ; Austria wants domi- 
nation in the Balkans and an outlet in the; 
iEgean; Italy wants Trieste and what is called 
Italia Irredenta; Germany wants a colonial em- 



14 IKELAND— AN ENEMY? 

pire and a powerful navy ; and all these Power* 
have formed alliances and laid their plans mani 
a day, simply for the realization of their re 
spective purposes. 

"They planned and schemed solely for the sak< 
of power and material gain. All the talk abou 
righteousness is simply the cloak for ambition 
and the worst of it is that some of the belli 
gerents have gone on repeating the profession o 
their disinterestedness until they have come t< 
believe it themselves. 

"Truth, and right, and justice have had verj 
little to say to this war, which is an outbreak o: 
materialism and irreligion. The peoples did no 
want this war ; there is no hatred of one anothei 
amongst them ; but the governing cliques in eacl 
country have led or driven them like sheep t( 
the slaughter. God has been ignored; His lav 
has been put aside; Christianity is not allowec 
to govern the relations of nations. And nov 
the retribution is on them all, the fair dream* 
of victory and expanded empire and increased 
wealth and prosperity with which they set om 
have vanished long ago, and there is not a Gov 
ernment amongst them but is trembling for the 
day when it shall have to answer for its stew 
ardship to its own people." 

This is the stuff which was preached from Iris! 
pulpits during the battle of Verdun. Such i 
document might well be considered seditious 
and His Majesty's Government might have re 
called the Bishop to his senses. But on this 



THE IRISH ENIGMA 15 

point Ireland has always taken a firm stand. 
"If you touch our holy prelates we will have civil 
war instantly." As usual the Government gave 
in, in order to afford no ground for accusations 
of tyranny nor occasions for calumny. So suc- 
cessful was this move that on April 7th, 1916, 
Mr. Sheehy Skeffington, an Irishman, whose evi- 
dence is valuable, wrote, "Sinn Fein (the army 
in the pay of the Wilhelmstrasse) is at present 
enrolling more than a thousand volunteers a 
week — the exact figure which Lord Wimborne 
asked for, for the Imperial Army." 

In 1916 I traveled from London to Paris with 
a young Australian lieutenant, who had just lost 
an arm near Albert, and had spent a month of 
convalescence with an uncle, a farmer in Ire- 
land. He told me that his host had welcomed 
him most kindly and admired him, but had al- 
ways seemed to be keeping something back. At 
last, when he said good-by to him and sent af- 
fectionate messages to his parents in Melbourne, 
he unburdened himself. "You are a fine boy, I 
like you, but take that off." That was the khaki 
tunic, the "badge of slavery." Since then I have 
met others who have told me of similar efforts 
at "conversion." 

We are told of persecutions in Ireland, of hu- 
miliations, of slavery. Judge for yourself. 
The Englishman has a broad back. 



16 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

That is why English widows — there are legions 
of them to-day — smile bitterly when they think 
of the young men in the distressful island, and 
why the English Tommies frown when you men- 
tion the "warm-hearted Celts." You can under- 
stand the amazement of the American sailors 
who landed at Queenstown, their base, in 1917, 
primed Yv T ith the Anglophobe legends of the 
Fenians of their own country, and found the 
place thronged with lusty sneering young men. 
You can understand above all that Ulster, threat- 
ened with union with these people, and obliged 
to submit to them, does not see any prospect of 
a happy future. This last fatal weakness of the 
Asquith Cabinet soon produced the usual con- 
sequences: shouts of triumph from the leagues, 
glorying in a victory won as they thought by in- 
timidation, followed by immensely increased in- 
fluence. It was only logical. Germany had the 
sense to make the most of it. When she thought 
the moment had come for direct intervention, 
her instrument properly adjusted, the "Irish 
Volunteers" sufficiently numerous and organ- 
ized, she took them seriously and gave them a 
place of honor in her strategy. 

Just at that time, in the spring of 1916, her 
plans were vast; formidable blows were to be 
directed against Verdun; a bold sortie was in- 
tended to pierce Jellicoe's line; finally a well- 



THE IRISH ENIGMA 17 

organized insurrection in Ireland, shorn of 
troops — with small chance of ultimate success 
no doubt, but sufficient at all events to oblige 
England to immobilize there a strong force in- 
stead of sending it to the help of Verdun. Sad 
to say, Ireland consented to play this part. 

You all know what happened: the plan was 
checkmated and put down. Unfortunately, 
though the Irish patriots burned their fingers, 
the German scheme succeeded up to a point ; in 
a few days 50,000 men had to be sent to Dublin, 
and to reinforce the permanent garrisons 
throughout the island. They are still there, to 
the joy of our enemies and to our detriment. 

If the rebellion of 1916 were the chief feature 
in our picture of Ireland during the Great War, 
we could now stop. But to do so would be to 
deprive ourselves of the most instructive lessons 
of the episode, of those which alone can throw 
a little light upon the tangled and paradoxical 
history of "the distressful country." 

I may be reproached for having been unjust 
in speaking thus of "Ireland" as a whole with- 
out qualifications. I have paid to Ulster the 
homage due to her, and also to those National- 
ist Volunteers who followed the Eedmonds and 
came to die for us. But during the first year of 
the war even the mass of the population was not 
open too much to criticism. Its attitude was in- 



18 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

different, but not yet hostile. Suspicious acts or 
words were at most the work of agitators and 
of some of the leagues, not enough to accuse 
"Ireland" of them. 

What is more serious is that as time went on, 
the more the world was horrified by German 
crimes, the more that Irish minority which was 
ready to strike us in the back became the ma- 
jority. The fatal change has been constant, con- 
tinuous, irresistible. We shall soon see what 
excuses were made for her. 

When the insurrection broke out in April, 
1916, most Irishmen were much surprised at it, 
and even went so far as to deplore it. Two 
months later, they were full of admiration and 
indulgence for the unfortunate rebels, and from 
that moment the Sinn Fein party recruits more 
men than it can absorb, proclaims its schemes 
without the smallest concealment, gets popular 
support everywhere, and in the by-elections wins 
all the seats of the orthodox Nationalist mem- 
bers — so much so that several of the latter be- 
come turncoats and incline towards those who 
have the upper hand. This became so pro- 
nounced that in 1917 and in 1918 Mr. Lloyd 
George's Cabinet feared fresh risings, and it was 
only due to their vigilance, firmness, and pre- 
cautions that we were spared them. 

In spite of all, we must have no illusions on 



THE IRISH ENIGMA 19 

the matter; the situation is still alarming, Sinn 
Fein is making headway. Germany has too good 
a trump card not to try to play it again. The 
deserted shore of the west coast affords ample 
shelter for submarines, and who knows when the 
next explosion will startle us? 

As the European drama became more alarm- 
ing, and the barbarian wallowed in the blood 
of his mutilated victim, and the British Empire, 
body and soul, and particularly soul, became in- 
dispensable to the cause of Right, the more mis- 
guided and irrational did Ireland become. 

Armenia had been exterminated by a slow and 
hideous martyrdom. Serbia had paid the pen- 
alty of her heroism, stabbed in the back. Who 
would not pity them? The horrors of the prison 
camps became gradually known, and there were 
Irishmen among the prisoners in Germany. As- 
to Belgium — if the great Cardinal's evidence 
were not sufficient, we now have the revelations 
of Lord Bryce's Commission. Lord Bryce is one 
of Ireland's staunchest friends, the first Secre- 
tary under the new Liberal Government, and, 
so far as I know, Ireland has never doubted Lord 
Bryce. 

All the Colonies, where Irishmen are so nu- 
merous and powerful, understood their duty and 
adopted our cause of their own free will. Eng- 
land allows her Dominions as much freedom as 



20 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

an English mother does her daughters. Were 
they likely to have yielded to a passing passion, 
and acted unreasonably? Events did not make 
them change their mind ; far from it. 

What of the United States— "New Ireland," 
whence the so-called martyred island was wont 
to draw all the money and moral support for 
her conspiracies? The United States took three 
years to take up the cudgels, smothering their 
wrath, and giving credence to the lies of the 
Boche, whether obvious or subtle ones. In the 
end they were obliged to submit to reality, and 
it appears that the Irish-Americans themselves 
were on our side. Two years have passed since 
the dramatic conversion of the most impartial 
of neutral democracies. Has Ireland followed 
the example? Not at all. Is she likely to do 
so? There is no sign of it; she is thinking of 
other matters. 

The Irish are by way of being a warm-hearted 
people, sentimental, champions of the ideal as 
against "the abject materialism of the Saxons." 
Why at every fresh crime on the part of Ger- 
many did Ireland draw a little nearer to her? 

A magic word reached her, the cry of a Ba- 
varian poet, Lissauer's Hymn of Hate, which is 
her religion too, an anathema bequeathed to her 
by her ancestors, and which the last Irishman 



THE IKISH ENIGMA 21 

will shout to his dying day. "Wir hassen dich, 
England!" 

Then for the first time during the war Ire- 
land was roused. She remembered her old prov- 
erb, "England's difficulty, Ireland's opportu- 
nity." She forgot all the rest — the stains on 
the hands which were held out to her, the blood 
of women and the scattered brains of children, 
orgies followed by massacres. Disgust was swal- 
lowed up in hatred. In a world united by the 
holy war this hatred could find but one ally, Ger- 
many, and did not even blush at this alliance. 

You will not forget this, will you, when you 
are told — as you will be — that Ulster alone is to 
blame, by refusing to join hands with Eoman 
Catholic Ireland? You would do w r ell to re- 
member that Ulster has good reasons. 

Are not these aberrations very extraordinary? 
It remains to be seen how matters came to this 
pass. The Irishman has an inexhaustible bat- 
tery of excuses; to enumerate them all would 
need volumes. We shall endeavor to collate the 
better known, to ascertain the respective share 
of facts and of psychology, and to get them into 
some better order than Hibernians can manage 
to do in their flow of turgid eloquence. There 
are all manner of excuses, historical, religious, 
economic, and sentimental, and all have the same 
conclusion. Ireland is a "little bit of heaven," 



22 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

as the popular song says, peopled with angels, 
of course, whose downfall has been planned by 
the Powers of Hell. 

The most serious aspects, so far as we are 
concerned, are the contemporary ones, for Ire- 
land, feeling in spite of her subterfuges that she 
was on the horns of a disagreeable dilemma, has 
at last defied all common sense and taken her 
stand against us, just as Lenin and Trotzky have 
done; she has tried to deny the purity of our 
intentions and our sincerity when war broke out. 
It is time, so it seems to me, to put a stop to it, 
and speak frankly to her. Father O' Flanagan 
said in January, 1916 : "Ireland should become 
an independent country in alliance with Ger- 
many." 

She wanted to be summoned to the Peace Con- 
ference as a sovereign nation, and who knows? 
England may be broad-minded enough to make 
some such concession. 

The time has come to know on which side she 
is going to stand, and, before receiving her com- 
plaints or judging of her grievances, to have at 
least some idea what foundation there is for 
them. 



CHAPTER II 

SOME ANCIENT HISTORY 

When we say "that is ancient history" we 
mean that a thing has lost much of its impor- 
tance. In Ireland you mean the opposite. If 
you drive along a pretty valley in one of those 
comic vehicles where you sit sideways with your 
feet hanging over the wheels, as if you were rid- 
ing a Spanish mule, and begin to talk to the jar- 
vey: "Whose land is that?" "That, your Honor, 
belongs to the Macdiarniids." You will be much 
astonished when you spend the evening with the 
village priest to learn that the aforesaid Mac- 
diarmids had disappeared from the neighbor- 
hood three hundred and Mtj years previously, 
and that the land belongs to Lord So-and-so. 

When the English try to make friends and say : 
"We confess all our mistakes, and will forget 
all yours. We will help you, and what fine re- 
sults we shall have when we work together!" 
it is the same thing. The Irishman does not un- 
derstand. He lives in another age, and forgets 
nothing. Before any reconciliation he wants 

23 



24 IKELAND— AN ENEMY? 

reparation, and it would not be so exorbitant if 
he did not insist on reparation for damage done 
in 1615 or 1649. You will allow that the claim 
takes some swallowing. 

It is true that we insisted that Germany 
should restore Belgium before we made peace 
with her. But if Europe had to liquidate to- 
morrow all its horrors of the past, from Charles 
the Bold to the Duke of Alva ; from the Sicilian 
Vespers to the Palatinate — great heavens ! when 
would peace be signed. Koughly speaking, that 
is what Ireland is asking. If you think that I 
am exaggerating, open an American newspaper 
of January, 1918. In it you will find an account 
of some Irish committee offering a statuette of 
Eobert Emmet to President Wilson; Emmet 
was an unfortunate rebel, implicated in the as- 
sassination of the Lord Chief Justice of Ireland 
and executed in 1803. In Ireland they are al- 
ways talking of the past, and every year they 
celebrate in all seriousness the anniversary of 
a defeat of the Danes at Clontarf in 1014. 

"If you only knew how we had suffered!" 
Irishmen are for ever saying. "We? You mean 
your great-great-grandfathers, for you seem to 
me to be fairly flourishing. But still if you are 
so anxious to do so, let us stir the ashes." 
• ••••• 

In Ireland in the Middle Ages, there were, 



SOME ANCIENT HISTORY 25 

besides the innumerable monks, who gave it the 
title of "Island of Saints," swarms of bards, 
some of them domestic adherents of some clan 
or chief; others who wandered about the coun- 
try with the right of asking for food and shelter 
wherever they pleased, descended from a druidi- 
cal hierarchy, and enjoying privileges conse- 
crated by custom. They were so numerous that 
they formed one-third of all the free men; they 
were sometimes amusing, but idle and noisy, 
poets more or less, but burdensome parasites 
above all. Those whose hospitality or patience 
was not up to their standard were given cause 
to repent; these rustic minstrels did not spare 
them. 

One of the kings wanted to be rid of them and 
banish them. Saint Columba took up their 
cause, and contrived to turn them into school- 
masters, giving instruction gratis to all, which 
evidently turned the country into a nursery of 
scholars. This era produced the most ancient 
Western epic, "Hibernicus Exul," in honor of 
Charles the Great, philosophers like Scotus 
Erigena, and sent to Gaul and Germany hordes 
of monks before the days of St. Boniface. 

On the other hand, these bards, transformed 
into teachers, poets, and chroniclers, had a dis- 
astrous influence on their country. They kept 
up the spirit of o?.d times, and all the vices of 



26 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

their foundation; if they sang of saints and he- 
roes, it was to travesty them by over-emphasis, 
flattery, fabulous exaggeration. Divided into 
"suide," who were compilers of pedigrees and 
genealogical tables, and "filid" minstrels, excit- 
ing the vanity and flattering the vices of their 
patrons, all achieved the same result — that of 
perpetuating the pride of the chieftains and clan 
rivalry. 

Now, clan spirit is one form of that feudalism 
which our great nations had to outgrow before 
they could arrive at their modern social and 
political order; Ireland, to her misfortune, could 
not do it in the specified time. At the time 
when great national unities were being consoli- 
dated, she who could have unified so easily, 
dallied too long with the petty quarrels of 
princelings and tribes. She was not very far 
behind us, but she has never been able to make 
up lost time. 

The bards whose business it was to write the 
national chronicle outbid one another in stories 
of the clans. The chroniclers who had to draw 
from this source found nothing but fables and 
rubbish. In spite of the astonishing number 
of documents, few histories have been more ob- 
scure or misleading. 

Our jarvey was satisfied with going back three 
or four centuries, but the "suide" have gone 



SOME ANCIENT HISTORY 27 

one better. Their Irish legend takes race and 
dynasty back to Noah, no less, with disconcert- 
ing accuracy! Neither the maze of prehistoric 
times nor flights of fancy have any terrors for 
Celts! 

Here is another example less excusable be- 
cause more recent, and even contemporary with 
the chroniclers. In the ninth century Norwe- 
gian pirates came to ravage the shores of Ire- 
land, and, needless to say, their methods were 
not gentle. Thereupon there arose the legend 
of a personage in whom every cruelty was in- 
carnate : Turgesius the Viking. An Irish manu- 
script overwhelms him with detail, then the 
story is taken up and enlivened by Giraldus 
Cambrensis and the monk Jocelyn; this is the 
first specimen of those national complaints, in 
which Ireland figures perpetually as the perse- 
cuted victim, and of which the rest of her his- 
tory is simply another edition. 

Now, no research has ever been able to prove 
that Turgesius ever existed! There is no trace 
of him in any other chronicle nor in Scandi- 
navian Sagas. But, on the other hand, there 
was at that time in Ireland, beside the usual 
endemic war of clans, never very humane, one 
Fedlimid, King of Munster and Bishop of 
Cashel, who, in order to become supreme king 
over the whole island, put it to fire and sword, 



28 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

devastating and pillaging with extreme feroc- 
ity. At last it was realized that the best part 
of the atrocities ascribed to the mythical invader 
Turgesins bore a remarkable resemblance to 
those of Fedlimid, whose praises were still be- 
ing snng by his bards and chroniclers. This is 
the first of the "persecutions" of Ireland — a sorry 
precedent for the veracity of narratives to come ! 
• ••••• 

The Middle Ages pass, and gradually we ap- 
proach the fatal day when the Irish lose their 
independence for good and all — if independence 
means killing one another with great persever- 
ance! 

Up to 1150 the Norman kings who had been 
in Great Britain for nearly a century had not 
yet cast longing eyes upon Ireland. 

In 1155 Pope Adrian, by his bull "Laudabili- 
ter," swept away their scruples. 

"There is no doubt that Ireland and all the 
islands which have known the light of Christ, 
the Sun of justice, and have received the teach- 
ings of the Christian faith, belong legitimately 
to St. Peter and to the Holy Roman Church. 
Knowing that you will assist by your power the 
welfare of religion and the Church, we grant 
you the government, reserving all our ecclesias- 
tical rights, and on condition that you pay to 
St. Peter for each hearth one penny a year." 



SOME ANCIENT HISTORY 29 

According to the law of that day, the title is 
in order, and for good Irish Catholics it is a 
bitter commentary on the past which they love 
so w^ell. King Henry, who had much to do in 
France, did no more than record the grant. 

In 1156, a somewhat unpleasant fellow — per- 
haps Irish historians give him that character 
because he is responsible for all that follows — 
Dermot MacMurrough, banished and deposed 
from his kingdom of Leinster, went off to Aqui- 
taine to ask help from Henry II, the first of the 
Plantagenets. According to the usages of those 
days, there was nothing very shocking in that. 
The king, still busy elsewhere, told him to make 
some arrangement with one of his barons, Rich- 
ard de Clare, Earl Strongbow, and authorized 
him to levy troops. 

An understanding was arrived at, some ad- 
vance-guards were dispatched, and Strongbow 
disembarked at Waterford. 

"Earl Strongbow," the Annals of Lough Ce' 
tell us, "came to Erin with Dermot MacMur- 
rough to avenge his expulsion by Roderick son 
of Turlough O'Connor. Dermot gave him his 
own daughter and part of his patrimony, and 
since then the Saxon foreigners have always re- 
mained in Erin." 

Finis Hiberniae! Irreparable subjection. 
Strongbow's progress was rapid, and the king 



30 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

soon saw that it was time to put in an appear- 
ance in person unless he wished to see his lieu- 
tenant supplanting him. He therefore duly ar- 
rived in Ireland in 1172, Alexander III having 
confirmed Adrian IV's Bull by several letters. 1 
Roger Hoveden's chronicle describes the ar- 
rival : 

"All the Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots of all 
Ireland came to the King of England at Water- 
ford, and received him for King and Lord of 
Ireland; swearing fealty to him and his heirs, 
and the power of reigning over them for ever ; 
and then they gave him their instruments — and 
after the example set them by the clergy, the 
aforesaid Kings and Princes of Ireland (namely 
the Kings of Cork, Limerick, Ossory, Meath, and 
Reginald of Waterford) who had been sum- 
moned by King Henry's command to appear in 
his presence and almost all the nobles of Ire- 
land (except the King of Connaught) did in 
like manner receive Henry, King of England, for 
Lord and King of Ireland, and they became his 
men and swore fealty to him and his heirs 
against all men." 

Roderick O'Connor, King of Connaught, did 
likewise in 1175. 

In 1185 Henry II sent his youngest son John 
of ignoble memory as viceroy, and Pope Urban 

1 These letters are still preserved in the Black Book of the 
Exchequer. 



SOME ANCIENT HISTORY 31 

III — the Pope again ! — sent to this villain whom 
he was afterwards to excommunicate a crown 
of peacock's feathers and letters of recognition. 

Thus was accomplished the conquest, brutal 
and unjustifiable according to the Irish, of one 
of the nations which was most faithful to the 
Pope. Yet we see that it was made at the re- 
quest of a King of Ireland, under the aegis of 
three successive Pontiffs, and with the acclama- 
tions of the national clergy whose absolute pow- 
ers of direction both in politics and in religion 
Ireland has never questioned. It is as well to 
insist upon these clear and definite statements 
made before the traditional hostility of the two 
races had been formed, with its interminable in- 
terplay of abuses and rebellion, rebellion and 
repression. Ireland will often have the right 
to our indignation and to our pity, but not when 
she forgets that she herself sent for the abhorred 
"Saxons" and put herself completely in their 
power. 

As she confused the Saxons with the Norman 
barons who were her actual masters, it has been 
suggested that she was ignorant of feudal law 
and did not know for what she was letting her- 
self in. It is quite possible, but is it probable? 
Certainly not, as regards those high ecclesias- 
tical dignitaries, the only learned men of the 
time, who came to render "homage" and who 



32 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

must have known its significance. The right is 
there, all the same ; and it must be admitted that 
in those days few suzerainties owed their origin 
to more formal titles or more explicit oaths. 

When Henry had received homage, he pro- 
ceeded to distribute the lands to his great vas- 
sals as was the custom in France, Normandy, 
Great Britain, and the whole feudal world 
(hence nowadays in Irish titles the name "Fitz" 
occurs so frequently, which shows descent from 
royal or princely bastards). The natives, clans, 
and chieftains had not foreseen this. They 
could do nothing but give up the best places and 
seek refuge in the mountains. This was their 
first trouble and it was a very real one. 

On their side the newcomers soon had troubles 
of their own, scarcely less serious; representa- 
tives of a more advanced civilization and accus- 
tomed to more advanced juridical ideas, they saw 
with amazement that the Celts by no means ap- 
preciated these presumed advantages, refused to 
associate with them and preferred to live aloof 
under the laws of their antiquated but national 
custom. Similar differences soon spread to the 
clergy of the two races, and the Norman abbeys 
excluded Irishmen for a long time. 

Polygamy, marriage of brother and sister, 
slavery of hostages, allowed by druidical cus- 
tom, had never been entirely suppressed by the 



SOME ANCIENT HISTORY 33 

efforts of the Christian missionaries. Period- 
ically, whenever the power of the Church was 
shaken by some invasion or civil war, the Celts 
relapsed into their ancient vices, and a new evan- 
gelization was needed to correct them. When 
one remembers that in the clans murder, except 
in the five royal lines, was not punished by death, 
but could be compounded for; when we see how 
mercilessly we endeavor to stamp out in our colo- 
nies everything which conflicts with our funda- 
mental morality (will they ever dare to ask us 
to tolerate human sacrifice or incestuous prac- 
tices in the name of respect for nationality?) — 
we can understand better the haughty bearing 
of the Anglo-Norman nobles towards the incor- 
rigible semi-barbarians. 

This contempt has been perpetuated and not 
without reason ; with all due respect to the Irish, 
who are charming people, there has been ever 
since then a difference of several degrees of 
civilization between the two races, the dwellers 
on the banks of the Thames and the Shannon. 
Possibly the Celt has suffered more from this 
than from other more concrete grievances; he 
has a proud, sensitive spirit, and the reproach 
of moral inferiority exasperates him very nat- 
urally. 

Unfortunately he has never grasped the fact 



34 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

that it is not enough to deny, and he has wasted 
time — nay, centuries — in eloquence and vitupera- 
tion. Nowadays even, in the twentieth cen- 
tury, the supreme ambition of his most modern 
interpreters, the Sinn Fein society, is to revert 
to the costume, Gaelic tongue, and national spirit 
of the twelfth century! for they claim that in 
those days they formed a nation. 

"Do you, then, wish to go back to your in- 
fancy?" the English protest. 

"Why not? Your tutelage has been nothing 
but rottenness and corruption; we will make a 
clean sweep of everything you have taught us." 

Is this only the folly of visionaries? Not so. 
This program is hailed with acclamation by 
bishops, by a press, and by a university. No 
wonder John Bull shrugs his shoulders. 

Let us now recapitulate three of the first les- 
sons which the past has taught us : 

The legality of the Anglo-Saxon sovereignty; 
the moral resistance of the Celts to the progress 
of law and social life; the spoliation of native 
property (but not forgetting that the latter be- 
longed not to the individual, but to the clan; 
that 700 years of prescriptive right has greatly 
weakened the claim; and that the evictions did 
not go beyond the fertile valleys of two or three 
counties). 



SOME ANCIENT HISTORY 35 

T will spare you the story of the Irish muddle 
until the reign of Henry VIII. The Anglo-Nor- 
mans, so richly dowered by their king, did not 
have an easy time, warring without respite as 
much among themselves as against the chieftains. 
The latter continued to exterminate one another 
with indefatigable perseverance. The power of 
the Crown was never anything but a myth, for 
if the viceroys issued vexatious edicts, no one 
paid the smallest attention to them, and they 
remained a dead letter and were not enforced. 
For instance, an edict forbidding the wearing 
of a mustache applied to English subjects, who 
ignored it as much as the Irish. It is therefore 
useless to catalogue that under the heading of 
"Saxon oppression." 

When the dynastic quarrels of York and Lan- 
caster were dyeing England with blood and tak- 
ing a heavy toll of the old nobility, the Irish 
barons joined in the fray, lost a good many of 
their number and thus weakened their position 
in Ireland. Consequently they were gradually 
forced back to the east and were confined within 
a narrow strip round Dublin called the Pale. 
Elsewhere the clans had recovered a free hand. 

One of Henry VIII's first cares, in order to 
bolster up this flagging authority, and at the 
same time to score another point in his contest 
against Rome, was to take the title of "King of 



36 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

Ireland." He was not satisfied with holding 
the island by papal delegation as had been done 
since Henry II. The move succeeded; the no- 
bles of Ireland, and not only those of English 
origin, rallied round him. Henry, who could 
be very tactful and pleasant when it suited him, 
received at his court more than one chieftain 
with a good Celtic name. The legal point more- 
over was soon to be definitely decided by Mary 
Tudor; Pope Paul IV granted her for good his 
so-called sovereignty over the Island of Saints. 

Henry VIII was less successful with his re- 
ligious revolution. Ireland was certainly the 
promised land of prebends and monasteries, for 
Saint Patrick's foundations had been most pro- 
lific. The dioceses were not limited as in 
France by ancient Roman boundaries; bishops, 
according to legends of the primitive Church, 
were as numerous as priests. Probably they did 
not exaggerate; nowadays for 3,000,000 Roman 
Catholics there are four archbishops, twenty- 
three bishops, and three suffragans. The Bishop 
of Ross has twenty-eight priests under his juris- 
diction, Killala thirty-nine, Achonry fifty-one, 
etc. The average is seventy priests per diocese. 
In Belgium, with double the population, one 
archbishop and five bishops suffice. 

In 1515 the organization was almost exclu- 
sively monastic ; the Augustine canons alone had 



SOME ANCIENT HISTORY 37 

no less than three hundred houses, the Cister- 
cians ran them close, the mendicant friars of 
every order were legion, and the minor abuses 
from which the Church was to suffer so much 
were naturally the same in Ireland as in Eng- 
land. The clergy, so eminent in the era of Pat- 
rick, Brendan, Bridget, and Columba, had lost 
their fine character. Scandalous anecdotes 
hailed from Dublin as well as from the English 
abbeys, and Henry's courtiers knew how to make 
the most of them; in 1549 the Archbishop of 
Dublin had to pawn his crozier, and it took 
eighty years to redeem it. 

By the measure which extended his power the 
king had no difficulty in getting possession of 
the Church's estates; the new owners seized 
upon them greedily without scruple, as else- 
where; and the "native" nobility were not be- 
hindhand. There was no lack of Celtic chiefs 
among those who carried out the confiscations. 
Bat the colonized region where such things were 
possible was limited in area, and in the remain- 
ing three-quarters of the island, that is, in the 
more distant countries, the Church kept its power. 
Its immense personnel did not assist the healthi- 
ness of the body, whose activities were at one 
time beneficent, but now were swamped by an 
excessive number of parasites. Yet this solid 



38 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

mass encompassed the mystical Celts so surely 
that they could not escape from it. 

The Protestant propaganda was always fee- 
ble in Ireland and never had much hold in the 
country districts. Only the court party or the 
English colonists in the garrisons or adminis- 
trative posts conformed to it; the natives did 
not come in contact with it. As in other coun- 
tries which resisted the early enthusiasm of re- 
form, the psychological moment, once it had 
passed, did not return; where the Church was 
not reformed by schism she took herself in hand 
and reformed herself. Ireland is still the most 
Catholic country in the world. 

On the whole the English Reformation did 
not treat her with much severity. Some violence 
in an age of brutality was to be expected, but 
there was no general persecution, and beyond 
the Pale and the large towns the Celts were not 
interfered with in their beliefs. Queen Eliza- 
beth even enjoined toleration and clemency upon 
Essex. We should give her due credit for this 
when we remember the affronts inflicted upon 
her woman's feelings, her queenly pride, her 
filial memories and religious prejudices, the 
Pope's insult to the young sovereign, the at- 
tempts upon her life, the horrors of Saint Bar- 
tholomew's Day and the Spanish Inquisition, 



SOME ANCIENT HISTORY 39 

above all the obsession of Spain, at once her 
worst political and religious enemy. 

Ireland gave Elizabeth a good deal of anxiety 
in other ways. She meant at first to use firm- 
ness in her administration only in the districts 
which she could reach, taking care to avoid any 
attack upon the mysterious beyond, the haunts 
of intractable and un-get-at-able chieftains. But 
fate forced her hand. During her reign an- 
archy in Ireland reached its height, civil war 
raged, as did clan warfare, vendettas among the 
English nobility, massacres, unbridled atrocities. 
Elizabeth could not remedy matters except piece- 
meal, and the appalling difficulties would have 
daunted a less stout heart. If her lieutenants 
put down a rising in the south, others broke out 
in the north and west, and everywhere, a tan- 
gle of intrigue whicli would have made most peo- 
ple lose their heads, and would have discouraged 
the most determined. Everything had to be be- 
gun again. She stood firm. At the end of her 
long reign her law had penetrated to every cor- 
ner of the island, all the rebels had been pun- 
ished, every coalition with the foreigner de- 
feated; she alone had really accomplished this 
conquest, which her ancestors and her father had 
only embarked upon and never completed. 

But from this moment the great resistance be- 
came conscious and definite, thanks to a fresh 



40 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

factor which was to dominate antagonism in the 
future : that is, the identity of the two races with 
the two opposing religions. Ireland had a fresh 
grievance; after having lost her land she saw 
her religious hierarchy scorned and overthrown. 
When it was merely a question of vague agra- 
rian or national troubles, there was nobody in 
that half-civilized lay world to denounce or plead 
the cause. But on the other hand, as soon as the 
Church was affected, she who alone was expert 
in those arts could provide any number of spokes- 
men; they were legion, and ever since then the 
cause of political independence has been con- 
fused with that of the traditional Faith. It 
meant fair warfare and made hostility almost 
incurable. 

This would not have signified so much, for 
after all supremacy once lost may be restored, 
despised institutions may by the changing for- 
tune of royal or popular favor recover their pres- 
tige, but there is worse than this. During this 
century the distinct temperaments of the two 
races became crystallized and antagonistic. Un- 
til then the two peoples had points in common, 
or rather vices in common, in government and 
political morality. In the sixteenth century 
they were divorced. Since then the English have 
made more and more use of their great panacea, 
compromise, with astonishing success and with 



SOME ANCIENT HISTORY 41 

results which neither Latin logic, nor German 
theory, nor the sentimental insistence of the 
Celts can understand. It has become their sec- 
ond nature, the standard of their empire. Have 
they not even managed, incredible though it ap- 
pears, to make a compromise with their State 
religion? Macaulay has exposed it in too mas- 
terly a fashion for it to be necessary for me to 
recapitulate it. For the last three centuries 
they have been satisfied with anomalies and half- 
measures, borrowing from Rome and Calvin, try- 
ing to avoid the extreme of both, fearful of af- 
fronting either party, starting from a constitu- 
tion conceived by Archbishop Cranmer, of whom 
none now dare speak well. Compromise is less 
happy in theology than in politics or in diplo- 
macy, but it suits the English admirably. 

The Irish will never be resigned to it; con- 
cessions are hateful to them. Have they not con- 
fused the means with the end? The end of their 
rebellion against Anglican compromise is the 
safety of their Faith. It does not follow that 
compromise in other spheres is necessarily bad; 
it is the secret of political wisdom as of com- 
mercial stability. The Irish will have none of 
it, and have thereby lost all its advantages. 
Never having progressed as have the English, 
they blame the latter; have they ever tried to 
imitate them? 



42 IKELAND— AN ENEMY? 

The two enemies were now face to face, the 
glove had been thrown down, the terms of the 
challenge had been clearly announced. Ireland 
was going to fight for her soil and for her re- 
ligion. A little later she will become conscious 
of her nationality, and we shall have a third ele- 
ment, politics. 

But now England also, besides her authentic 
title-deeds, had a new grievance, in order to jus- 
tify her severity. Historians are practically 
unanimous in agreeing that the war against 
Philip II and foreign politics absorbed Elizabeth 
and her people far more than the religious quar- 
rel. For the first time the country felt its in- 
tegrity threatened. Mary Tudor had given it a 
foretaste of the reprisals it would have to face ; 
the queen's youth aroused all its chivalrous 
wrath. The horizon clouded quickly; it was a 
matter of life or death — the enemy was at the 
gates, cruising outside Plymouth. The empire 
whose destiny was to be so brilliant was only 
saved from the terrible Armada by its lucky star. 

It was at this fatal crisis that Ireland sowed 
in the heart of England the germ of constant 
and well-deserved mistrust. On several occa- 
sions the enemy disembarked on the island which 
is Great Britain's bastion, and some of the Irish 
• — I will not say "Ireland," so that I may not be 
accused of making unjust generalizations, yet 



SOME ANCIENT HISTORY 43 

are there many Irish who do not approve of these 
things? — some of the Irish held out a friendly 
hand and allied themselves with the detested 
Spaniards. 

That is not altogether ancient history, for it 
has repeated itself often since then. When 
statesmen in London consider Irish claims and 
problems, can they ever forget those memories 
or ignore the dangers? Would they not be mad 
not to take them info account? Those who im- 
prudently forget their history and neglect pre- 
cautions as was done in 1916 have had cause to 
repent. 

The most serious of these appeals for help 
from the enemy took place in 1601, shortly be- 
fore the death of Elizabeth, and the danger which 
threatened from the two great Ulster rebels, 
O'Neill and O'Donnell, was very real. Mount- 
joy, the Queen's skillful lieutenant, only over- 
came it by a very drastic measure: he began to 
burn the crops, and the horrified rabble laid 
down its arms. The Spaniards were helpless, 
and were killed and captured as they landed. 

The incident is a memorable one ; it marks the 
close of an era, the end of a long impunity. From 
this date the Irish rebels will never defy their 
masters with the same light-heartedness, for sup- 
pression, which until then had been half-hearted 



44 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

and undecided, was now to change its tactics. 

In Whitehall also a change had taken place. 
The power of the Crown, the authority of the 
Government, the prestige of royal power, the 
cohesion of the State had all grown during the 
century of the Tudor dynasty. Modern political 
systems were in course of construction. Par- 
liamentary control had not so far made itself 
felt, for Elizabeth was sufficiently tactful not to 
exasperate her subjects or her advisers, and gave 
in to them gracefully, but other parts of the con- 
stitutional structure were changed and strength- 
ened. Respect was shown for law. The Eng- 
lish nation began to live in peace, to be a civi- 
lized society, to work; regular industries need 
legality and security in order to prosper. Lieu- 
tenants and viceroys were no longer the maraud- 
ing adventurers of old days. Rebellion ended 
in punishment, not by an exchange of titles of 
nobility, or of land or money. Things had now 
to be taken seriously. 

This is the explanation of another misunder- 
standing, one of Ireland's gravest complaints 
against England. Ireland is always some gen- 
erations behind the progress of European poli- 
tics. True, she has the excuse of her isolation, 
she has no standard of comparison. "To take 
things seriously" therefore seems to her to be 
an intolerable tyranny; why should she not di- 



SOME ANCIENT HISTOBY 45 

vert herself as of yore? The hated Saxon im- 
posed a new mode of life upon her and gave her 
no warning; this was sufficient reason for blam- 
ing him for everything. 

One class had no such excuse, namely, the na- 
tional clergy, whose mission it was to learn and 
to instruct others, who lived in contact with the 
principle of authority, and ought to have known 
how it was enforced elsewhere if only by means 
of the new order of Jesuits, imported from Spain. 
But the clergy were obsessed by the idea of the 
Eeformation, and, in order to avoid at all costs 
pernicious imitations, they preferred, and do so 
to this day, to confuse different spheres, foster 
nationalist illusions, and maintain that the po- 
litical and social progress of England is not 
progress at all. We are not going to be taken 
in by that. The English have been reproached 
for having treated this sensitive race too roughly, 
and for not having been more tender to their 
susceptibilities. Was such treatment customary 
in those days? What were those susceptibilities 
worth? 

For all practical purposes Ireland was half 
civilized compared to the nations which she af- 
fected to despise so heartily. In 1567 Sidney, 
one of Elizabeth's lieutenants, wrote to the 
Queen: "There was never a people of worse 
minds, for matrimony is no more regarded in 



46 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

effect than conjunction between unreasoning 
beasts. Perjury, murder, and robbery are 
counted allowable. ... I cannot find that they 
make any conscience of sin." National heroes 
were desperate brutes; one of them, O'Donnell, 
had to his credit in 1564 the murder of 500 peo- 
ple of quality and 14,000 poor men — enough to 
make our most successful komitadjis green with 
envy! "In Ulster," wrote Fitzwilliam to Cecil, 
"all is murder, incest, and lying." Possibly 
there may have been traces of that religious fear 
so dear to Celtic mysticism ; but every other no- 
tion of right or morality had disappeared. 

In order to punish rebellions, the Crown made 
use of radical methods, forfeiture and feudal 
confiscation. If this seems to us oppressive we 
must remember that forty years later in Eng- 
land the Long Parliament made use of the same 
measure against the supporters of Charles I. In 
Ireland the ancient Brehon Custom maintained 
tenure of land and stock by clan and not by the 
individual ; the head of the clan or "tanaist" was 
administrator and manager. The more power- 
ful the chief and his clan, the more enormous 
were the confiscations, and the more difficult to 
accomplish. These forfeitures, the largest of 
which consisted of 500,000 acres in Munster in 
1583, had never been completely carried out, nor 
rigorously enforced, but Elizabeth bequeathed to 



SOME ANCIENT HISTORY 4.7 

her successors more serious methods of coercion. 

On his accession in 1603, Mary Stuart's son 
had to punish Ulster, which Mount joy had con- 
quered, and as the chiefs had fled to Spain or 
elsewhere, there was nothing more to be done 
than to record, the loss of their rights. Now 
James I came from Scotland and wished to con- 
solidate the union of the two kingdoms, but found 
an obstacle in his way: on the Border between 
the two countries there lived a fierce and warlike 
race, perfectly brave and loyal, but living by 
raids on the rich English counties over the Bor- 
der, making a pretext of the wars which were 
practically continuous between the two coun- 
tries. This had to be put down. 

As he had lands in Ulster to dispose of, and 
tiresome subjects to get rid of, James colonized 
after the manner of those days : he took the Scots 
of the Border wholesale and planted them out 
in Ireland with a small contingent from Lon- 
don. At the same time the English courts by 
judicial decisions suppressed the ancient agra- 
rian custom of the Irish clans and unified the 
law of property in the two countries. That mat- 
ter also was never forgiven. 

From these unwilling colonists, who were de- 
ported men rather than immigrants, were de- 
scended the Ulster Presbyterians, who form one 
quarter of the Irish to-day, a race most faithful 



43 IKELAND— AN ENEMY? 

to the empire, industrious and enterprising, 
which has contrived to be prosperous in one of 
the poorest and most arid corners of the island, 
in spite of adversity and obstacles without num- 
ber. 

For three centuries they have been exposed to 
the hostility of the former inhabitants, who were 
driven westwards, abandoned by their chiefs, 
neglected. Such hatred is excusable, but need 
it be eternal? After all the newcomers would 
gladly have dispensed with the gift; they had 
some difficulty in realizing that they were 
grudged the deserted bog where their king had 
thrust them. The cruelties which they suffered 
can never be forgiven. If nowadays the aver- 
sion is mutual, whose fault is it? We shall see. 

The two races had only one common charac- 
teristic : both were equally attached to their po- 
litical and religious liberties. Both were equally 
persecuted by those Stuarts from whom they 
had every reason to expect more sympathy. The 
Eoman Catholics, in memory of his mother's 
martyrdom, expected from James I at least a 
tolerant indulgence; this monarch, at once ca- 
pricious, mean, and obstinate, soon undeceived 
them. In 1605 he banished severely all Koman 
priests, and the papists were more harassed un- 
der his reign than under the Tudors. 

Charles I did no better, but extended op- 



SOME ANCIENT HISTORY 49 

pression to the whole population, including 
Protestants. His tyranny was of a different or- 
der; religious matters were relegated to the 
background without being any less bitter, and 
his main interest centered in the royal preroga- 
tive with its arbitrary fiscal rights indispensable 
for paying his Pretorian guard and for defying 
Parliament. Ireland had to provide a large 
share of funds for his privy purse. In 1635 the 
notorious Strafford, Charles's evil genius and 
right-hand man, fertile of brain and firm of pur- 
pose, arrived in Dublin as Lord Deputy, and 
Ireland was to know a system of customs, fines, 
and industrial taxation as odious as it was use- 
less. 

She might have consoled herself with the 
thought that England was even more exasperated 
and had more extorted from her by the same 
men. Not at all. Ireland ignores or forgets 
this, and the English are thus accused of crimes 
and extortions from which they suffered equally, 
and for which they themselves exacted the death 
penalty. 

Finally Strafford was recalled in order to 
mount the scaffold, and his departure left the 
whole structure in peril. While all this dirty 
linen was being washed at Westminster, and the 
King lost his favorites and the instruments of 
his revenges, then fled, and started fighting, Ire- 



50 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

land was left alone and had time to breathe. 

At this moment she committed her greatest 
mistake. She profited by the respite to commit 
a grievous crime, the massacre of the Ulster 
Protestants. As in 1641, so in 1916. "England's 
difficulty is Ireland's opportunity." A danger- 
ous phrase, and fallacious precept. All Irish 
modern history can be dated back to that ; every- 
thing else can be traced to it, a series of links in 
the chain of circumstances. 

The monstrous crime brought suppression in 
its train, as soon as England had put her af- 
fairs in order ; suppression fanned hatred, whence 
grew fresh crimes which had to be suppressed, 
and so on in a vicious circle. 

Thus on October 23rd, 1641, the wild men of 
Ulster came down from their mountain fast- 
nesses, and took their revenge upon the colo- 
nists of James I. They did many things, ac- 
cording to the order of their leader Phelim 
O'Neill: "Kill all Protestants, irrespective of 
age or sex." The rest of the island soon joined 
in. The priests had to send in a return of their 
victims every week; they reckoned about 154,- 
000 between October, 1641, and April, 1642. Sir 
William Petty's calculation comes to about the 
same figure, as does that of a priest in Cork in 
1645 exhorting to fresh slaughters: "You have 
already killed 150,000 enemies in these four or 



SOME ANCIENT HISTORY 51 

Rye years. I think more Heretic enemies have 
been killed; would that they had all been! It 
remains for you to slay all the other heretics, or 
expel them from the bounds of Ireland." 

Enthusiasm such as this did not mince me- 
thods, and the tortures were hideous, such as 
"boiling the hands of little children before their 
mothers' faces." Wholesale drowning was re- 
sorted to when they wanted to put in quick work, 
or else, a favorite form of torture in Ireland, the 
victims were left to be sucked down in those fa- 
mous bogs which leave no traces. There is a 
long report on this matter by Sir John Temple, 
with forty folios of depositions, preserved in 
Trinity College, Dublin. 

Sir John Temple adds this damning comment : 
"They were completely taken by surprise, hav- 
ing so far lived in perfect amity with the native 
Irish," and there is other evidence which con- 
firms the pacific attitude of these Ulster Scots 
prior to this bloody treachery. Besides they had 
prospered on unfavorable soil ; what better proof 
that they had worked hard instead of worrying 
their neighbors; had they not prospered where 
the clans had left barrenness? One can under- 
stand what covetous greed, burning regrets, and 
implacable resentment were aroused. 

"Those outsiders have stolen the best part of 
our island." 



52 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

"Pardon me. They never wanted to come. 
And if yon call it the best part of your island, 
who made it so? Of what value was it in your 
day, when ravaged by your quarrels and under 
your antiquated Custom?'' 

In similar circumstances in feudal times the 
prosperous tenant was evicted. Instead of copy- 
ing feudalism in many things which would have 
been profitable, Ireland followed its example 
only in this unfortunate practice. She reckoned 
without Cromwell. 

He dealt with the situation with no light hand, 
and for the second time Ireland was compelled 
to take things seriously. 

Masters of England and Scotland, Oliver and 
his Ironsides landed at Dublin in 1649. They 
came to punish not only the turbulent Papists 
and the intrigues of Rinuccini, the Papal Nun- 
cio, but a party of royalist refugees led by Queen 
Henrietta Maria. The Ironsides were the most 
highly disciplined army of that day; their 
leader, after seven years of a stern school, un- 
derstood strategy. A few towns tried to resist; 
he deported one inhabitant out of every ten to 
the Barbadoes. 

Having once made an example, he treated the 
others, we must admit, with more clemency than 
was usual among conquerors in those days, and 



SOME ANCIENT HISTORY 53 

the day after an attack lie had one of his veter- 
ans hanged for stealing a fowl. 

He was prompt and severe. But was he just? 
His victims have never been able to mention 
him dispassionately. Yet history does not paint 
him as the arch-villain which Irish rancor would 
have us believe. It would be difficult to accuse 
him of meanness or petty hatred. Though he 
was inexorable in the service of a cause which 
he considered holy, England and Scotland had 
more cause to complain than Ireland; if he 
quelled the latter with more severity and bit- 
terness, it was because he found her more bar- 
baric, more guilty, and more incorrigible. And 
think how hateful must the presence of a for- 
eigner, a Roman legate, have been to this great 
patriot, jealous guardian of national sovereignty. 

Cromwell's main act of suppression was a rad- 
ical one. He drove the Celts to the far side of 
the Shannon, which cuts the island in two from 
north to south, just as we now treat African 
tribes, or the Americans the Red Indians. In the 
east he confiscated thousands of acres and in- 
stalled his faithful Ironsides as soldier-farmers. 

Was this blind and unjust spoliation? No 
doubt it was, as are all collective reprisals. They 
are none the less necessary sometimes ; the causes 
of them are too quickly forgotten. The posses- 
sions of the royalist English nobles and those 



54 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

of the Anglican Church were affected just as 
much as those of the murderers of 1641. The 
latter had slain 150,000 Protestants. Should 
they have been brought to book one by one? 
Would it have been possible? Besides, it did 
not last. The soldier-farmers, knowing nothing 
of the business, could not farm. They did not 
settle, but sold their land to their officers. 

As soon as the Protector had other matters 
in hand — European wars, fractious Parliaments, 
dynastic ambitions — all his victims rallied 
round the party of Charles Stuart, the Pre- 
tender. After the Restoration the Ironsides 
were soon harassed in their turn, and emigrated 
to New England. 

Ireland had her revenge during the next reign. 
The only compact bodies of Protestants left were 
in Ulster, and Ulster had to submit to the tyran- 
nies of the royal bigot James II, instigated by 
the Earl of Tyrconnell, a Catholic Irishman, and 
the Jesuit Petre. Thanks to them no Protes- 
tants were allowed in the army, in the magis- 
tracy, nor in municipal corporations ; and worse 
than this, what was particularly oppressive in 
those times and places, Protestants were not al- 
lowed to carry arms. 

This measure did not only wound the dignity 
of the gentlefolk; to understand its full signifi- 
cance we must note a new fact. Massacres like 



SOME ANCIENT HISTORY 55 

those of 1641 had been more or less spontaneous 
reactions, without much preliminary organiza- 
tion ; therefore there was not much fear that they 
would occur very frequently. Now, on the con- 
trary, all that changed. Though the progress 
of other races came to her slowly and late in the 
day, Ireland came into her own at last. The 
rebel people began to organize. We now have 
the first appearance of secret societies, still more 
or less nebulous, and with them what we may 
call propaganda by direct action. They were to 
play a dominating part in the history of the is- 
land. 

When the Celtic clans and chieftains had been 
driven beyond the Shannon by Cromwell, many 
of them, ruined and miserable, preferred to defy 
the edict. They led the life of outlaws hidden 
in swamps and bogs, harassing Cromwell's colo- 
nists to the best of their ability. They were 
nicknamed Tories, and this name, which was 
adopted by the royalists and all who hated the 
Protector, the republicans, and the Puritans, has 
remained to this day the name of the Conserva- 
tive party. 

A little later, under James II, Rapparees or 
robbers came upon the scene; then Houghers in 
1710, Whiteboys in 1761, Defenders in 1760, In- 
vincibles, Molly Maguires, Ribbonmen, and more 
recently Fenians. The name of these bands 



56 IEELAND— AN ENEMY? 

changed often, but the Eapparees had many imi- 
tators, and their methods have survived. They 
flourished exceedingly under Mr. Birrell's benefi- 
cent protection for ten years, and are now held 
in high esteem. 

All these bandits have a common name, "moon- 
lighters" ; they work by night. Usually they un- 
dertake the dirty work of political associations 
of outward respectability, such as criminal boy- 
cotting, firing ricks, ham-stringing horses and 
cattle, etc. They go farther when they dare. 

It was in the face of all this that James II dis- 
armed Ulster, and the Eapparees made the most 
of it. In 1688 another massacre was certainly 
contemplated, but fortunately William of Orange 
came to the rescue of English liberties. 

Before James II resigned himself to exile at 
St. Germain, he made an attempt at a rising in 
Ireland with French assistance. The situation 
was favorable. Thus for the second time, in 
espousing the cause of a dethroned English king, 
Ireland's reasoning was logically unsound. She 
rebelled against English sovereignty — that we 
take for granted — but why should she be more 
legitimist than England when it was a question 
of restoring the Stuarts? Because James II was 
a Eoman Catholic, Ireland all of a sudden for- 
got her so-called inalienable rights, began to 



SOME ANCIENT HISTORY 57 

wear the white cockade, and for fifty years she 
sang: 

"Twas all for our rightful King." 

Eightf ul ! Is that not rather an embarrassing 
memory for her to-day? 

James II had, it is true, done well by his re- 
ligion in Ireland. From the moment of his ar- 
rival, his severity, confiscations of property, and 
sentences of death upon two or three thousand 
noted Protestants drove them all towards Ul- 
ster, where they were confined and trapped in 
their turn. Finally, in 1691, William of Orange 
was able to deliver and avenge them by the de- 
cisive victory of the Boyne, which Ulster still 
celebrates every year. The last of the Stuarts 
threw up the sponge with a cowardice of which 
his Irish and French allies kept a poignant me- 
mory. 

William III had to put down the Rapparees. 
That was soon done; he put a price on their 
heads, and the success was beyond his dreams: 
"brothers and cousins cut one another's throats" 
to get the reward. Six months later the Rap- 
parees were no more. The vanquished party re- 
lapsed into dissensions and quarrels, and the 
last of the chieftains, Hugh O'Donnell, sold him- 
self for an annuity of five nundred pounds. 

A fresh reaction set in. According to Irish 



58 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

ideas, all the oppressive measures violated the 
treaty of capitulation of Limerick, by which re- 
ligious liberty had been promised them. The 
fact is that the text of the treaty left a loop- 
hole for evasion, and neither side was in those 
days very scrupulous about keeping treaties. It 
is too much to hope that a piece of parchment 
can prevent the workings of natural and popu- 
lar reactions as irresistible as the forces of na- 
ture. 

The first punitive measure was, as usual, the 
confiscation of a million acres. We must ad- 
mit that William rewarded persons much less 
reputable than Cromwell's soldiers, and for much 
less worthy services. Ireland became, as under 
the Plantagenets, the portion of political crea- 
tures, court intriguers, and royal mistresses. It 
was adding insult to injury. Not that William 
of Orange was by nature low, disloyal, and 
tyrannical, but his accession could not alter all 
at once customs and a court circle which his two 
predecessors had corrupted. Both the men and 
the system were rotten. 

This explains a whole series of economic mea- 
sures which were utterly stupid, initiated at first 
under Charles II and aggravated by his suc- 
cessor. They consisted of customs restrictions 
which were always one-sided. 

In 1663 Ireland was excluded from the Navi- 



SOME ANCIENT HISTORY 59 

gation Act, and her maritime interests were in- 
jured. In 1666 Ireland was forbidden to export 
to England horses, cattle, meat, butter, or 
cheese; after that nothing but jmtatoes was 
planted. When Charles II forbade the export 
of cattle, Ireland set to work to rear sheep, and 
soon produced the best wool in Europe. William 
III forbade her to export it. 

The only remedy was smuggling. From every 
little lonely and deserted bay on the coast, Ire- 
land sent her wool to France, and received in 
exchange wine, which she handed on to England. 
Bordeaux wine was at that time known in Lon- 
don as "Irish wine," and some Irish dealers in 
the capital acquired a great reputation. This 
traffic, so vividly described by Fronde, brought 
in enormous profits, but the moral effect was 
disastrous ; as a result of living by her wits and 
defying authority, with the excuse of oppressed 
patriotism, Ireland made deplorable progress in 
this art, and became once more a lawless country. 

Protestant Ulster was no better treated. Her 
specialty was the culture of flax and the linen 
industry. She had been promised protection, 
but English competitors opposed it. In spite of 
all, by sheer tenacity and hard work, these Ul- 
stermen managed to prosper, just as they had 
succeeded a century before in cultivating their 
bogs. 



60 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

All this is reiterated so often nowadays in 
polemics, that it is just as well to make some 
comments upon it. First of all let me point out 
that Ireland owes this state of things to the 
Stuarts, who were the dynasty of her choice, and 
whom she helped with such a willing hand. 

Moreover at the time they w^ere enacted these 
measures did not cause ruin; by devoting her- 
self to sheep and wool under Charles II, Ireland 
attained great prosperity, and her archives prove 
that the island had never been before and never 
w T as again equally flourishing. We have seen 
how smuggling remedied the restrictions upon 
woolen exports. There were abundant compen- 
sations, and Ireland, full of money, became one 
of the best markets for English trade. 

We must not forget that this kind of abuse 
was universal at a time of petty restrictions 
from which all the colonies without exception 
suffered until the end of the eighteenth century ; 
an epoch when other countries had their salt 
taxes, municipal import duties, and so forth, 
which were much more vexatious. 

Ireland has some difficulty in explaining how 
Ulster, under identical conditions and obstacles, 
was able to survive and progress, while the rest 
of the island vegetated and retrograded. 

She urges that though the disappearance of 
her industries did no great harm in 1700, it left 



SOME ANCIENT HISTORY 61 

her disabled a century later when the United 
Kingdom became a great manufacturing State. 
Is that not a very far-fetched way of excusing 
idleness and apathy? Does not Ulster's exam- 
ple show that the excuse is a poor one? Was 
free trade between the two islands not restored 
in 1779? 

Finally the Orange reaction had a third as- 
pect, the best known and the most hateful — the 
penal laws against the Catholics. They extend 
over several years and the chief one dates from 
Queen Anne's reign. It is the retort to all that 
James II had promulgated against the Prot- 
estants, and to all that the English Puritans had 
suffered under Charles II's restoration — Dra- 
conian laws they certainly were. But it is ad- 
mitted that they were not drafted in London, 
but voted by a Dublin Parliament at the instance 
of the Presbyterians who had been delivered 
from the hands of the enemy. Ulster had been 
too frightened, and had several good reasons for 
insisting upon safeguards. 

Let me assure all those tender-hearted souls 
who are justly moved by Irish diatribe — all this 
has been done away with long ago. I shall only 
enumerate these laws in order to mention their 
abrogation. 

Catholics were allowed in 1778 to own real 
estate on 999 years' leases; in 1782, to keep 



62 IEELAND— AN ENEMY? 

schools after having obtained permission from 
the Protestant Bishop of the diocese, to hear or 
celebrate the sacrifice of the Mass, to have horses 
worth more than £5 sterling, 1 to inhabit the 
towns of Limerick and Gal way ; in 1792, to prac- 
tice at the Bar, bnt without reaching the rank of 
King's Counsel, to become attorneys, to open 
schools without permission from the Protestant 
Bishop, to marry Protestants if the service were 
celebrated by a priest of the Established Church, 
to own land on the same conditions as Protes- 
tants. 

In 1782 the right which allowed Grand Juries 
to recover from Catholics all losses due to thefts 
or rebellions was withdrawn. 

In 1793 Roman Catholics were admitted to the 
electoral franchise, to the magistracy, to the 
Grand Jury, to municipal councils, to Dublin 
University, to every rank in the army except 
that of general. Those possessed of a certain 
amount of means were allowed to carry arms, 
etc. 

Such were then those hateful penal laws of 
1704. For nearly a century the Irish Catholics 

1 Before then any Protestant had the right to remove the 
horse of the first Irishman whom he met, by paying him £5. 
There has been a lot of exaggeration on this subject; we must 
not forget that even in England in Charles IPs time a saddle 
horse was not worth more than £2 10s. (see Macaulay, King. 
Davenant, etc.). 



SOME ANCIENT HISTORY 63 

were pariahs. More than 500,000 of the young- 
est and proudest emigrated between 1691 and 
1745 ; they went to fight in European armies, and 
the English met them again on the field of Fon- 
tenoy. The remainder, too prolific for a coun- 
try of pasture and bog, lived abject, miserable 
lives, and were decimated by famine. 

Is there any excuse for these reactionary se- 
verities? Good heavens! Ireland had no 
monopoly of wrongs and persecutions. We must 
judge men and their deeds by the age and the 
circumstances wherein they live, and in the cen- 
tury which saw the Thirty Years' War, the 
Dragonnades, and the revocation of the Edict 
of Nantes, we must not condemn the English 
alone, for having struck too severely after such 
provocation. 



CHAPTER III 



MODERN HISTORY 



We have now arrived, through centuries of ter- 
rible suffering and pitiless cruelties, at the 
calmer days of modern times, at the era of re- 
ligious and political toleration, of reparation for 
shattered rights, of parliamentary guarantees. 
Will Ireland have order and peace at last? 

English legislators had become more indul- 
gent, more enlightened, more conciliatory. They 
were more inclined to make allowances for Ire- 
land, and to loosen the reins. Then periodically, 
every twenty or thirty years or so, they had rea- 
son to regret it ; Ireland took advantage of these 
acts of clemency and they had to be canceled. 
It is one long round of "benefits forgot," and 
the inevitable suppression following upon them 
■■ — the whole thing intensified by the fatal but 
very tenacious illusion that English statesmen 
only give in to fear. As Irish revolt is continu- 
ous and endemic, it can always be shown that 
threatening agitation has preceded conciliatory 
laws, and it is easy to assume that they are cause 

64 



MODERN HISTORY 65 

and effect. For those who know the character 
of Pitt, Wellington, Peel, and Mr. Balfour, this 
is somewhat hard to believe, but Ireland always 
insists upon ignoring good intentions, refusing 
to be grateful, and perpetuating animosity. 

The first serious attempt at concession was the 
legislation at the close of the eighteenth cen- 
tury abrogating the penal laws. 

Ireland had at that time her Parliament sit- 
ting at Dublin, with Lords and Commons, an 
ancient institution dating from the days of the 
Plantagenets, similar to the Parliament in Lon- 
don, and having experienced the same evolution 
and vicissitudes. For a long time it had been 
composed only of nobles and prelates nominated 
by the Crown. A celebrated statute of Henry 
VIFs reign, "Poynings's Law," laid down its 
functions until 1782 ; no Bill could be introduced 
in Dublin which had not previously been exam- 
ined and approved by the Privy Council in Lon- 
don. Thus countenanced, the Bill might be re- 
jected, though it might not be amended by the 
Irish Parliament. That is roughly what the 
Reichstag had to be content with under Wil- 
liam II. 

During the eighteenth century, both at Dub- 
lin and at Westminster alike, well-known con- 
stitutional and parliamentary progress was de- 
fined. In 1780 the Irish House included remark- 



66 IKELAND— AN ENEMY? 

able orators, such as Flood and Grattan, whose 
eloquence is as traditional as that of Fox and 
Burke. 

Grattan, moreover, was a first-class states- 
man, endowed with determination and practical 
energy. It was he who specified what the na- 
tional claims should be, carried out the repeal of 
the penal laws and definitely emancipated his fel- 
low-countrymen by two great legislative victo- 
ries. In 1782 he obtained the abrogation of 
Poyning's Law, thus restoring parliamentary 
initiative to his country, and he could then claim 
that Ireland was "a free country and a nation 
once again." Afterwards, and as a logical con- 
sequence, the Eoman Catholics acquired the 
right to vote. 

It is only right to observe that none of these 
laws of equity could have succeeded without the 
consent of George Ill's ministers. According 
to the Irish, they only bowed before the storm 
of warlike preparations on the part of the 
leagues, Volunteers and Defenders, who were 
all aflame with the theories of the French Kevo- 
lution. We shall see if Pitt were the kind of 
man to fear anything of the sort, and if he would 
not show the iron hand wherever he thought it 
necessary. 

How did the Irish make use of their new lib- 
erties which Grattan had won for them? In 



MODERN HISTORY 67 

1791 they founded the League of United Irish- 
men, on the principles of '89, imported from 
Paris. Its object was to unite against England, 
both Protestants and Roman Catholics; and the 
Presbyterians of Ulster, disgusted by the intol- 
erance of the official Episcopal Church, con- 
sented to enroll in it. As a matter of fact they 
were the dupes of plausible talkers who con- 
cealed ugly motives; once the English were dis- 
posed of, so they reasoned, there would be little 
trouble in getting rid of these tiresome Protes- 
tants, and woe to those who allowed themselves 
to be cut off and led astray by vain promises ! 

The project was revealed by a speech in the 
Dublin Parliament by one Dr. Duigenan. 

"Irish Catholics to a man esteem Protestants 
as usurpers of their estates. To this day they 
settle these estates on the marriage of their sons 
and daughters. They have accurate maps of 
them. They have lately published in Dublin a 
map of this kingdom cantoned out among the 
old proprietors." 

A premature rising in 1793 opened the eyes of 
the Protestants, and made them understand what 
to expect; some of the boors who were taken 
prisoners, unversed in the secrecy of conspira- 
cies, confessed that "when matters were more 



68 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

ripe, all Protestants and Presbyterians were to 
be killed in one night." 

For two or three years, under the name De- 
fenders of the Faith, an abominable band of 
firebrands had raged over the island, correspond- 
ing to the Chouans. Nocturnal crimes, agrarian 
and others, became more and more frequent. In 
Ulster an inoffensive Protestant teacher called 
Barclay was thus murdered with all his family, 
wife and children. The incident created a great 
sensation. Ulster was obliged to admit that it 
had been misled, and that Defenders and United 
Irishmen were one and the same. The reaction 
was violent; in their turn the Protestants 
founded their League of Orangemen in 1795 and 
swore to exterminate those savage brutes, whose 
victims they had narrowly escaped being once 
more. They took up again the old cry of Crom- 
well's Puritans, "To Hell or Connaught." 

From that time the Catholic rebels, searching 
for other allies, made friends with the Conven- 
tion and the Directoire, and Hoche came to give 
them a helping hand in 1796. This put quite a 
different complexion on the problem, and it made 
Pitt, who had up to now been well-disposed 
towards Ireland, an opponent in spite of him- 
self. Pitt and England had at that time only 
one idea, war to the death against the murder- 
ous Jacobins. Ireland, by allying herself 



MODERN HISTORY 69 

against such a man, and such a nation, signed 
her own death-warrant, all the more because she 
had just received so many concessions. As usual 
the Martyred Island produced a pretext. Pitt 
had recalled a viceroy from whom much was ex- 
pected; a feeble excuse for calling upon the en- 
emy for help. 

The historic parallel is a tempting one, be- 
tween the invasions of Queen Elizabeth's reign 
and of 179G and the appeals to Germany in 1916. 
When the Irish asked for help from the Span- 
iards of Philip II, at least they were applying 
to co-religionists, but that the Roman Catholics 
should have opened their doors to the man from 
Quiberon surprises us more, and is perhaps the 
most absurd paradox among the many which 
abound in the history of Ireland. 

Between this rebellion and that of 1916 there 
are other points of comparison. They both 
broke out at a moment when it was most ill-fit- 
ting that Ireland should complain of persecu- 
tion, since she was on the contrary overwhelmed 
with concessions. She w T as not in the least grate- 
ful. We can also find in both crises the waver- 
ing of the national clergy, whose influence is 
so considerable. Wolfe Tone, the leader of the 
rebels from 1796 to 1798, one of the earliest so- 
cialists, and open disciple of the Jacobins, did 
not conceal his hatred of priests. He did not 



70 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

consider them sufficiently sure and reliable al- 
lies, since the Church could not approve his vio- 
lent schemes. The leaders of Sinn Fein are 
more moderate to-day, but they profess the same 
impatience of the religious yoke. 

On the one hand we find bishops reproving of- 
ficially the brutal side ; on the other hand some 
prelates take a different view and their indul- 
gence is ill-concealed. Again, the young priests, 
one and all, defy the pontifical charges, take part 
in meetings or join leagues which their bishops 
have condemned. Enthusiasm is infectious, and 
the word "nationalism'' calms the scruples of this 
most submissive hierarchy. The faithful make 
the most of this encouraging example ; and why 
should they hesitate, if the attraction is strong 
enough to shake the discipline of the shepherds 
of the flock? 

• ••••• 

Hoche's expedition failed ingloriously, but the 
island was none the more peaceful for that. 
Wolfe Tone and his United Irishmen continued 
their agitation. Since the Government could 
not, while war was raging, allow such coalitions 
with the enemy to pass with impunity, martial 
law was proclaimed; Ireland had to submit to 
summary reprisals from a garrison of 60,000 
men, incited by the Protestants to avenge them 



MODERN HISTORY 71 

for all the outrages which they had suffered 
against their persons and properties. 

In the face of all this, Wolfe Tone's follow- 
ers redoubled their excesses. Suddenly, in 
1798, the insurrection once more gained the up- 
per hand, with a repetition of the horrors of the 
Thirty Years' War. It only lasted for a month, 
but quite long enough to justify the most exag- 
gerated fears on the part of the Protestants. In 
the south they were seized everywhere, dragged 
to Vinegar Hill to the revolutionary headquar- 
ters, and shot after a mock trial, with prayers, 
exorcisms, absolution, and sprinkling of holy 
water. At Kildare a father and his child were 
impaled and slowly roasted alive. At Sculla- 
bogue 184 men, women, and children were burnt 
alive in a barn ; some Roman Catholics protested, 
and were thrown into the furnace. At Wexford 
Bridge, men were drowned wholesale ; two brutes 
stuck a pike into them and threw them into the 
water. Including those who were punished, 
there were altogether between 150,000 and 200,- 
000 victims. 

Ulster was spared, for the more compact Pro- 
testant centers could protect themselves better. 
But the slaughter in the south made Ulstermen 
renew their steadfast vows never to accept such 
masters, and never to relinquish English pro- 
tection. Those vows have never been changed, 



72 IKELAND— AN ENEMY? 

and it is as well to remember on what memories 
they are founded. How can one ever expect par- 
don and oblivion between Protestants, haunted 
by the thought of the cold-blooded massacres of 
1641 and 1798, and Nationalists who never depre- 
cated them openly and still go on pilgrimages to 
Wolfe Tone's tomb and honor his scoundrels as 
martyrs? 

The rebellion was quickly suppressed because 
the help from France came too late. A century 
earlier it would have brought upon Ireland piti- 
less reprisals, but Pitt was above petty spite; 
he was just and firm, but would not tolerate 
cruelties. He drew from this turmoil only one 
conclusion, that which is drawn by another his- 
torian, Lord Eosebery, a statesman of moder- 
ate views, eminently liberal, impartial and dis- 
interested : "The one lesson of the rebellion was 
that the whole system of Irish government must 
be remodeled." 

Grattan's eloquence had failed; it had de- 
manded rights, but had not said enough about 
duties. 

Pitt decided upon Union; there would be no 
more Parliament in Dublin, and in exchange 
Irish deputies would come and vote at West- 
minster. There was a happy precedent for this : 
Scotland had adopted this plan in 1707 and was 
none the worse for it. Pitt only neglected one 



MODERN HISTORY 73 

thing — the consent of the Irish, no doubt think- 
ing it superfluous to argue and negotiate with 
chauffeurs ; 1 a Government worthy of the name 
only stoops to that when other resources fail. 
With such opponents, and on the morrow of such 
horrors, he had no scruples about the choice of 
methods, and he won the consent of the Irish 
Parliament by corruption. 

Every one knows how votes were bought and 
sold in those days, how little comment it 
aroused, and how Pitt himself was returned by 
a rotten borough. But this does not affect Irish 
agitators, who look upon this matter as fair 
game, and the corrupt origin of the Union has al- 
ways been their favorite argument. They forget 
the causes, and win an easy success by laying 
stress only upon the vitiated form. 

No one can deny that the Dublin Parliament, 
so deeply regretted, had always been venal; in 
1800 it was at the same stage of development as 
the Houses at Westminster were in 1730 in Wal- 
pole's day. All the votes were bought by bar- 
gaiuing with administrative posts, titles, or hard 
cash. 

Before deciding upon any scheme, the Viceroy, 
representing the Cabinet in London, was asked 

1 The Chauffeurs of the Revolutionary period in France were 
highwaymen who specialized in roasting the feet of their vic- 
tims to find out where money was hidden in the house. 



U IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

— "What are your wishes, and how much will 
you pay us?" Every member of the National 
Assembly had his price. By a supreme irony, 
the great law of Catholic emancipation of 1792 
had only been passed thanks to Pitt's express in- 
structions and to the usual wire-pulling. 

Before leaving for ever that Senate which he 
had made illustrious, Grattan, in a moving pro- 
test, vowed that the Union would alienate Ire- 
land from England irretrievably. 

But what could have been more hostile to Eng- 
land than Ireland in 1798? Armed rebellion, 
paroxysms of national hatred, and religious 
fanaticism, three invitations to the enemy fol- 
lowed by their landing — no light matter. What 
more do you want? The wars of the Counter 
Revolution have been compared with the Great 
European War, and nothing has been exag- 
gerated; then, too, England's existence was at 
stake, and she could not afford to be distracted 
by Irish pleasantries. Now that we are allies, 
and that all our enemies both behind and before 
us are the same, we ought to understand better 
the spirit of the great Minister who watched so 
jealously over her destinies when they were in 
peril. 

Grattan had been the champion of political 
liberty, properly speaking. Another illustrious 



MODERN HISTORY 75 

Irishman, Daniel O'Connell, now came to the 
fore as the upholder of religious liberty. The 
Catholics, although they had become once more 
citizens, electors, and lawyers, still suffered from 
numerous disabilities; every career was open to 
them, but they were not admitted to the highest 
ranks in the magistracy, they were not allowed 
to become Ministers or generals. They might 
enter the doors and sit in the ante-chamber, but 
never at their master's table ; justice was meted 
out to them so grudgingly as to be insulting. 

O'Connell had been educated at the convents 
of Douai and Saint Omer, and had witnessed 
the excesses of the French Revolution; as a re- 
sult he had remained resolutely Conservative, 
and his patriotic and religious convictions were 
always tempered by respect for established or- 
der. Till the end he maintained the principle 
— a novelty in the history of his race — of libera- 
tion by lawful means. He found the moment 
propitious for his program, owing to the fail- 
ure of violent methods in 1798, which helped to 
convince intelligent men; and owing also to 
Pius VII's moderating influence in the direc- 
tion of conciliation, which won over the clergy. 
He therefore rose rapidly. His Catholic Asso- 
ciation was soon supreme; it held monster as- 
semblies which were under perfect control; all 
the faithful were members without exception, 



76 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

and thanks to its discipline, irreproachable meth- 
ods, the coherence of its ideas, and the justice 
of its demands, its impulse was irresistible. By 
rousing the nation through an enthusiasm which 
was truly ideal, and by allying himself through 
the nobility of his cause and the sincerity of his 
propaganda with the giants of English Liberal- 
ism and with farsighted Conservatives such as 
Canning, the Liberator proved that a genuine 
stirring of opinion can have as much force as 
the convulsions of a riot and the terror of se- 
cret societies. 

The Duke of Wellington bowed before the 
storm, and since 1829 there has been practically 
not the slightest inequality, civil or political, 
between Roman Catholics and Protestants. 

The last intolerable injustice, that of having 
to pay tithe to the Established Church, disap- 
peared in 1838, and the final separation of the 
Protestant Church of Ireland and the State was 
completed by Gladstone in 1869. The Island of 
Saints was in that respect more favored than 
England, where tithe is still due, and where dis- 
senters of all denominations have still to submit 
to the existence of a State Church. 

Shrewd lawyer as well as inspired orator, 
O'Connell had never allowed his partisans to 
deviate towards the illegalities which are so dear 
to the national character. At the height of his 



MODERN HISTORY 77 

triumph he was swept away by the demagogy 
which he had inflamed. All Irish leaders have 
known that reverse side of their glory, and en-" 
dured the same remorse at their inability to con- 
trol the exasperated mob. Social discipline has 
never been inculcated in this people, and neither 
by education nor by temperament can it enjoy 
liberty for long without abusing it. 

Already the campaign against the tithe, 
started in 1830 immediately after England had 
granted total rehabilitation, had plunged Ire- 
land once more into an orgy of blood and crime. 
O'Connell, although he disapproved whole- 
heartedly of the methods of ruffianism, so con- 
trary to his own, had to back up his friends, pro- 
test against the rigors of the law which never- 
theless he respected profoundly, and had to in- 
veigh against authority, justice, police, by tak- 
ing the part of the criminals. His attitude in 
this business has often served as an example to 
the leaders who followed him. Neither Isaac 
Butt nor Parnell nor Redmond was the accom- 
plice of the Fenian assassins of 1870, of the dyna- 
miters of 1884, of the agrarian terrorists of 
1909, or of the traitors of 1916. And yet they 
were unanimous in deploring their punishment, 
and in demanding boundless impunity for their 
compromising followers. Out of this Ireland has 



78 IKELAND— AN ENEMY? 

reared a misleading "martyrology," by mourn- 
ing these dubious "heroes." 

Absorbed by her struggles for religious free- 
dom, Ireland had as yet hardly raised any ob- 
jections to the Union of 1800. About 1840, 
however, this question came to the front rank, 
and became the great national cry; the repeal 
of Pitt's Statute, return to Parliamentary au- 
tonomy in Dublin, Home Eule and the right to 
be master in one's own house were demanded. 

The whole apparatus of monster meetings as 
in 1828 was revived on an appeal from the 
clergy, and in 1843 O'Connell thought he was 
on the eve of a fresh victory. But he no longer 
held the best trump card which he had played 
before; he had lost the moral support of Eng- 
land, which had been very considerable, and to 
which he had owed much more of his earlier 
success than he had imagined. 

The majority of those who had seconded him 
in the name of religious toleration grew impa- 
tient of this incessant and noisy agitation ; they 
realized that Ireland obtained quite easily at 
Westminster anything which she asked for rea- 
sonably, and saw through the adversaries' 
game; they realized that the only reason for 
which the Irish Parliament was to be revived 
was in order to perpetuate an enmity of which 



MODERN HISTORY 79 

no secret was made, and which was, at this stage 
of the proceedings, frankly ungrateful. 

O'Connell failed. England was not afraid, 
which he had reckoned on, having misunderstood 
the reasons for the concessions of former years. 
Peel, who had been so conciliatory on a ques- 
tion of conscience, on this occasion opposed and 
crushed the movement for Repeal. 

Ireland had now a fresh weapon which she 
could use against her so-called stepmother. The 
Union gave her 103 members in the House of 
Commons, and about 84 of these represented hos- 
tile constituencies. These were enough to alter 
the English balance of parties, and naturally 
their weight tended towards the Radical party, 
crazy about national autonomy and always flirt- 
ing with all movements for independence, even 
the most artificial and unjustifiable, and more 
and more indifferent to British dignity and Im- 
perial cohesion. May England perish rather 
than that the smallest humanitarian Utopia of 
John Bright, Cobden's economic theories, or the 
doctrinaire and humiliating diplomacy of Rus- 
sell and Gladstone should go by the board ! The 
Little Englanders have always been the natural 
allies of anti-English Ireland. 

They first united in opposition to the Cabinet 
of Robert Peel. This coalition subsisted latterly 
quite as much by parliamentary necessity as for 



80 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

love of principles, for the eighty-four votes of 
the Irish Nationalists have often saved Whig 
Governments. That is the reason why the lat- 
ter were always against redistribution ; those 103 
seats were attributed to Ireland when her 5,500,- 
000 inhabitants constituted 35 per cent, of the 
United Kingdom. Now they are only 10 per 
cent., and she should not have more than 67 
members out of a total of 670. We are still some 
way from seeing England annihilate Ireland! 

Thanks to this disproportionate influence, Ire- 
land has had a large share of power and of fa- 
vors, each time that the Liberals have been in 
power. Beyond this she has had even more 
abundant and substantial benefits from the Con- 
servatives. Yet she still remains one of the 
worst problems of modern Europe; from 1840 
to the present day, now flattered by the Whigs, 
and now petted by the Tories, she has never been 
more unruly, tormented, discontented, sterile, 
decadent, and refractory. She is the only fail- 
ure of that Empire which is fortunate and pros- 
perous above all others, the only nightmare of 
the greatest of colonizing nations. Will she 
make us believe that England is the only cause 
of all her woes? England whose light hand 
rules the most diverse races and the most vast do- 
minions with a minimum of troops and troubles? 



MODERN HISTORY 81 

Disraeli stated the problem in one of his first 
parliamentary attacks upon Peel. 

"What," he asked, "did this eternal Irish ques- 
tion mean? One said it was a physical question, 
another a spiritual question. Now it was the ab- 
sence of an aristocracy, then the absence of rail- 
roads. It was the Pope one day, potatoes the 
next, . . . They had a starving population, an 
absentee aristocracy, and an alien Church, and 
in addition the weakest executive in the world. 
That was the Irish question. Well, then, what 
would honorable gentlemen say if they were 
reading of a country in that position? They 
would say at once 'the remedy was revolution.' 
But Ireland could not have a revolution, and 
why? Because Ireland was connected with an- 
other and more powerful country. . . . What, 
then, was the duty of an English Minister? To 
effect by his policy all those changes which revo- 
lution would do by force. That was the Irish 
question in its integrity.'' 

This was well said. Yet Disraeli had to con- 
fess later on, when he had had to give up biting 
criticisms and try his hand at ruling, that the 
famous question was easier to define than to re- 
solve. In 1845 Peel, when asking Parliament 
for £9,000 for Maynooth, said : 

"I call on you to recollect that you are re- 
sponsible for the peace of Ireland. I say you 
must break up, in some way or other, that for- 



82 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

midable confederacy which exists in that coun- 
try against the British Government and the 
British connection. I do not believe you can 
break it up by force. . . . You can do much to 
break it up by acting in a spirit of kindness, 
forbearance, and generosity." 

So spoke the Conservative statesman whom 
Ireland has most abused; so have spoken and 
performed all his successors since. All have had 
the same disillusions. The Irishman is never 
content. He says that he has excellent reasons 
for it, but when he makes the "Saxon" responsi- 
ble for all his woes, he exaggerates. Here is the 
first example. 

The island was decimated after 1830 by con- 
stant dearth, and in 1847 by an appalling famine 
during which 300,000 unfortunate people per- 
ished; from 1847 to 1852, 1,300,000 inhabitants 
emigrated and the population decreased by 20 
per cent. Whose fault was it? You can guess 
what answer the demagogues give. In reality 
there were two causes which were entirely eco- 
nomic. 

After the unjust export duties of 1666, the 
Irish poor lived solely by growing potatoes, for 
which their soil is particularly suitable. The 
potato has bad seasons. And since the Irish 
peasantry, which has always been one of the 
most backward in Europe in agricultural meth- 



MODERN HISTORY 83 

ods, used to leave the crop in the ground instead 
of looking after it carefully, and only dug it 
up as it was wanted, the best part was often 
frozen or rotted in bad winters. In 1846-47 it 
had all these misfortunes. 

On the other hand, as the race is most pro- 
lific, the population had almost trebled in sixty 
years. From 2,800,000 inhabitants in 1785, it 
had grown to 8,300,000 in 1845. This would 
have been all very well if the resources of the 
soil had been sufficient. But a good quarter of 
the island was uncultivated, and how could 220 
inhabitants be supported on one acre of culti- 
vated land, at a time when land lay fallow and 
when the working was neither intensive nor in- 
telligent, nor even continuous? All the Home 
Rule in the world could not have spared them 
the atrocious distress of 1847. 

For what can England be blamed in this mat- 
ter? For having under Charles II and William 
III discouraged other forms of cultivation, left 
Ireland without industries, left big properties 
through absenteeism in the hands of agents who 
were notoriously indifferent to the fate of the 
unfortunate, and in any case took no trouble to 
improve agricultural produce or to exploit poor 
soils? 

None of these things, blameworthy in them- 
selves, would explain the great disaster like the 



84 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

two direct causes which we have mentioned. The 
economic obstacles which are cited had disap- 
peared in 1779, they had not prevented Ulster 
from living in comfort. Besides, England was 
not slow in remedying matters; she gave help 
to Ireland with that haste and ample generosity 
which she always brings to great catastrophes. 
Parliament voted a subsidy of £10,000,000, an 
immense sum for Budgets in those days; public 
works of no importance were undertaken in or- 
der to provide employment for 200,000 men and 
to feed the same number of families, public 
kitchens distributed nearly 3,000,000 rations 
every day. Private charity vied with official ef- 
forts, and we know that no people opens its purse 
with the same large-heartedness as the English, 
who are accused of selfishness. 

As no people has ever met with so much in- 
gratitude, the result might have been foreseen. 
Ireland has never hated the English more furi- 
ously than she has since 1850. I have before me, 
as I write, a chronological list of rebellions, mur- 
ders, crimes of every description committed in 
the name of the national cause; one can hardly 
believe that it applies to this century. I have 
already filled a book with a summary of contem- 
porary crimes, the history of three years of Irish 
anarchy, from 1906 to 1909. 1 The remainder 

1 La Demagogic Irlandaise, 1906-1909. 



MODERN HISTORY 85 

would make an endless list. O'Connell died in 
1847 and was no longer there to restrain passion, 
and contain his people within the bounds of le- 
gality, and once more the Irish cause was stained 
by violence. 

Another confederate now comes on the scene 
in America. A powerful colony of Hibernians 
was founded in the United States by the great 
tide of emigration from 1840 to 1860. This col- 
ony has been ever since the most powerful sup- 
porter of rebel Ireland, the refuge of her outlaws, 
the instigator of her plots. It has procured the 
funds, inflamed hatred, armed or coached the 
patriots who were detailed for special jobs. 

As most of the professional politicians on the 
other side are drawn from the ranks of the Irish, 
they have encouraged ill-feeling in the United 
States against England, the danger of which has 
often been prominent and has disturbed the best- 
intentioned American statesmen. On these oc- 
casions the British Government has shown a 
forbearance and patience, for which we should 
give them due credit. Ancient countries have 
the wisdom of the ages. They need it, for provo- 
cation has been great. In 1864 the New York 
Irish inaugurated the Secret Society of Fenians. 
Two years later it was accredited with 380,000 
members in America alone. Their activity was 
prodigious, and in a few months they succeeded 



86 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

in inspiring terror throughout the Anglo-Saxon 
world. They tried their hand at everything; 
they landed arms, committed murders all over 
the world, planned explosions and two invasions 
of Canada, attacked Chester Castle, laid siege to 
towns, garrisons, police posts, and coastguards, 
made an alliance with the Boers, blew up a prison 
in the middle of London, killing 150 innocent 
people, proclaimed the Irish Republic, issued 
paper money, etc. The Pope admonished the 
Catholics, President Grant took a firm tone, but 
no notice was taken. 

The most characteristic incident of the whole 
campaign was the affair at Manchester in 1867. 
A prison van which was taking two Fenians from 
prison to court was attacked, the prisoners re- 
leased, and a warder killed. Five of the assail- 
ants were arrested and condemned to death ; two 
were reprieved, one of them because he was an 
American citizen ; the other three, Allen, Larkin, 
and O'Brien, were executed. These are now 
honored as the Manchester martyrs! their anni- 
versary is feted, they are held up as an example 
to Irish youth, and extolled in national school 
manuals. Every town in Ireland went into 
mourning, every church celebrated solemn requi- 
ems followed by huge processions. Irish patri- 
ots, who are reputed to have a great sense of 
humor — "fellows of infinite jest, of most excel- 



MODERN HISTORY 87 

lent fancy" — yet contend quite seriously that 
these crimes are not crimes of common law, but 
political offenses; the only criminal part in the 
business is taken by England, who dares to de- 
fend herself. 

The indictment is quickly forgotten, and the 
condemned man often excites more respect than 
his executioners. We who are so easily led 
away by the mirage of independence might be 
deceived by these sophisms, if we were not put 
on our guard by similar aberrations from which 
our Alliance suffered in 1916. On that occa- 
sion there was likewise rebellion, bloodshed — 
innocent blood — and then punishment. The day 
after the executions, solemn requiems were sung 
in Dublin churches for the martyrs of 1916, and 
divine vengeance was called down upon blood- 
thirsty Albion. 



CHAPTEE IV 

AGRARIAN TROUBLES 

We will not waste time by trying to calculate in 
what proportion all the revolts of the past were 
in reality inspired by agrarian grievances. No 
popular upheaval has ever been exclusively re- 
ligious, agrarian, or national ; if one or other ele- 
ment predominates, the others have always 
helped to swell the raging torrent. There is no 
doubt that agitators were largely helped by the 
sad and miserable condition of the Irish peas- 
ants. 

These unfortunate people had good cause for 
complaint. The wholesale confiscations in old 
days had concentrated property in the hands of 
a small number of great nobles — not bad men, I 
admit, but absent for three-parts of the time, 
living in the capital or in more comfortable 
mansions in England. A hundred years ago 
Miss Edgeworth denounced this abuse in The 
Absentee, and Thomas Drummond enunciated 
his celebrated maxim, "property has duties as 
well as rights." The tenants were in the 

88 



AGRARIAN TROUBLES 89 

clutches of agents, who in no country have a 
reputation for gentle handling. 

Besides, the best intentions could not have 
cured the radical vice of the system : in an over- 
populated island, without an industry to occupy 
the surplus population, mainly laid out in pas- 
ture, which gives little employment and requires 
scarcely any labor, almost the whole population 
was reduced to the status of agricultural labor- 
ers on meager pittances, and small downtrodden 
tenants, without prospects, without ambition, 
and without sufficient to live in comfort. It 
meant the inevitable atrophy of a whole race, 
and could no longer be tolerated in our modern 
democratic evolution. 

If English legislators have never denied nor 
ignored their duties on this subject, they have 
naturally yielded to the fashionable ideas of their 
day, and at first they tried to remedy matters by 
philanthropic measures ; such was the great Poor 
Law of 1838, and others which followed it. Even 
in 1905, when Ireland had recovered a relative 
prosperity, there were not less than 558,000 peo- 
ple receiving relief, either in the workhouse or 
in their homes. That makes one in every eight 
of the population. In 1838 the dangers of pau- 
perism were not fully foreseen, and neither in 
Ireland nor England could these expedients be 
lasting solutions. 



90 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

The peasant saw himself constantly threat- 
ened by two catastrophes : recurring famine, be- 
cause cultivation on a large scale did not draw 
from the land all that it could produce, and 
dread eviction, which drove out without mercy 
the insolvent tenant. 

In the face of such inequality at the hand of 
Fate, on the one hand a few privileged persons, 
on the other a mass of pariahs, justice could not 
be too rigid. In the face of such cruel misery, 
the former class were rightly asked to resign 
some of their advantages, however legitimate, 
in order to relieve the disinherited. A fresh par- 
tition of property seemed essential. But a re- 
form of this breadth could not be carried out in 
one day; the English are too fond of compro- 
mise, they have too much respect for tradition, 
to lay themselves open to the convulsions of 
1793, or to fall into a slough of Bolshevism. 

In order to deal with what was most urgent 
before turning the peasant into a peasant pro- 
prietor, the Land Act of 1870 was passed in or- 
der to protect him in his tenancy. In future the 
landlord had to indemnify his tenant— 

(1) In case of arbitrary eviction. 

(2) For improvements made by the tenant to 
the estate. 

(3) If he refused sub-letting or alienation of 
the tenancy. 



AGRARIAN TROUBLES 91 

This was not all that was asked for; a rea- 
sonable and legal fixing of rent was also de- 
manded. 

But it was a big measure of equity, marking 
a new era of concessions in a spirit of good 
augury, and promising future reforms and more 
ample reparation. Then as usual the Irish 
stepped in and muddled the whole business. 
Those promises of a golden age almost made us 
forget that we were in Ireland. 

Those who fished in troubled waters were on 
the lookout. Religious wrongs having been set- 
tled, Fenian terrorism overcome and expiated, 
they had to look round for fresh pretexts and a 
new battle-cry. From what was poor Ireland 
suffering now? From economic marasma, faulty 
agriculture, an antiquated partition of property. 
This was enough with which to open the cam- 
paign, and the agitators now took the agrarian 
movement under their wing. All titles to prop- 
erty were gone into, as far back as Henry II, 
Elizabeth, James I, or Cromwell. They de- 
clared that everything had been stolen and must 
be given back. The fat was soon in the fire. 
It mattered little that these properties had been 
taken from the Church, and that mortmain 
would not be admitted by modern legislation; 
or from clans which only allowed collective 
property, and could not transmit individual 



92 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

rights ; or from rebels lawfully despoiled accord- 
ing to the public law of the time. Three cen- 
turies of prescription could not avail. 

Davitt adopted the formula — "Shoot down all 
landlords like thieves and rats"; he was a sur- 
vivor of Fenian plots, had escaped from prison 
and justice, and was an enthusiast blinded by 
savage exasperation. 

Upon this program Davitt founded his Land 
League in August, 1879, profiting by fresh agri- 
cultural distress, consequent upon a succession 
of bad seasons. Just at this time evictions were 
all the rage, for the landlords, hit by the three 
clauses of the Act of 1870, but keeping the right 
to turn out those who did not pay rent, had thus 
an opportunity for revenge and used it freely. 
They thought themselves victims of an unjust 
law violating at their expense the common law 
of property, and by trying to make examples 
they were often cruel. Popular wrath was soon 
aroused. 

At this point Isaac Butt, the leader of the 
Irish Parliamentary party, died; he was a pru- 
dent law-abiding man, a follower in O'Connell's 
footsteps. His successor, the famous Charles 
Stewart Parnell, was of another stamp, no less 
skillful than Butt or O'Connell at playing the 
game of obstruction at Westminster, but far 
more impetuous, remorseless and unscrupulous 



AGRARIAN TROUBLES 93 

over the choice of methods, and openly encourag- 
ing propaganda by direct action. All the ora- 
torical triumphs of one of the greatest of mod- 
ern tribunes cannot make us forget that he had 
strange allies and encouraged ugly practices. 

He consorted with Davitt, and in October, 
1880, became President of the Land League. 
Then he went to America and at Cincinnati pro- 
nounced his memorable ukase : "The first thing 
necessary is to undermine English power by de- 
stroying Irish landlords. Ireland might thus 
become independent, and let us not forget that 
that is the ultimate goal at which we all aim, 
to sever the last link in the chain which binds 
Ireland to England." This is the doctrine of 
total separation which neither his Parliamen- 
tary predecessors nor his successor Redmond 
ever dared avow so brutally. 

When he returned home Parnell made his in- 
structions still more definite. "To make an end 
of evictions, we must punish any man who dares 
to take a farm from which another has been 
removed, by isolating him from his fellows as 
if he was a leper of old." This method, very in- 
genious because the law did not touch it, was 
adopted with enthusiasm, and applied instantly 
to all those whom the Land League denounced 
publicly for vindictiveness, landlords or tenants, 



94 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

agents, or shopkeepers, any one who was ill- 
disposed. 

The first victim was Lord Erne's agent, Cap- 
tain Boycott, whose name has passed into an in- 
ternational vocabulary to denote the system. 
He had refused to give a receipt to some tenants 
who wanted to pay him less than the rent agreed 
upon. Every one turned his back upon him, and 
his crops would have rotted for want of labor 
to harvest them, if fifty volunteers had not come 
to his assistance from Ulster, guarded by 900 sol- 
diers. 

Parnell had had an inspiration, the whole of 
Ireland relished the game; it still is one of its 
calamities, and is always cropping up to infect 
life over there. The boycotted victim could get 
nothing to eat nor to drink in his neighborhood. 
His affairs were ruined; nobody would buy his 
cattle at the fair, the blacksmith would not shoe 
his horse, the wheelwright would not mend his 
cart. His friends gave him a wide berth when 
they passed and crossed themselves, his children 
were hounded away from the village school, no 
one would sit near him in church. Fathers 
dared not go into their son's houses; a shop- 
keeper under suspicion of having sold anything 
to the victim was deserted by his terror-stricken 
clients. If he were ill no medicine would be pro- 



AGRARIAN TROUBLES 95 

curable ; if he died no carpenter would make him 
a coffin, no sexton would dig his grave. 

These amenities were so successful that the 
League had recourse to them in order to recruit 
its members. It had its tribunals, pronounced 
judgments, and woe to the lukewarm, the neu- 
tral, and the law-abiding. The Cowper Com- 
mission concluded its report in these words: 
"The people are more afraid of boycotting than 
of judgments of Courts of Justice." I leave to 
the imagination what capital could be made out 
of this system by personal spite, anonymous in- 
formers, and petty sly revenge. 

At the same time the old violent methods 
were still in full swing, preferably mutilations 
of cattle, and that other national specialty "cat- 
tle-driving," which consists in turning cattle on 
to the roads at night and driving them far from 
their pastures. In 1881 there were 4,439 agra- 
rian crimes of this kind. The League was all- 
powerful with local committees in the remotest 
corners of the island; there was even a Land 
League for women, and another for children. In 
spite of the pastoral letter of the Catholic Arch- 
bishop McCabe, reproving this terrorist agita- 
tion, there were no limits to their excesses. 

In all crises of this nature, Ireland practices 
the same abuse, and the representatives of vio- 
lence are sure of the same protection; that is, 



96 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

the impossibility of finding witnesses to give evi- 
dence or juries to convict; justice is reduced to 
humiliating impotence. Hence the Government 
is always reduced to one of the following solu- 
tions, against which our honest Irish protest 
with equal indignation : either they have to pack 
the juries by keeping out the Roman Catholics, 
who are certain to be accomplices and not judges ; 
or they have to pass emergency legislation for 
summary suppression, without making use of the 
judicial formalities which the Irish have paro- 
died ; or if they are at war, as in 1916, they pro- 
claim martial law, and have order restored by 
a general who will take matters seriously. In 
all three cases Ireland says she is being perse- 
cuted and sets to work to venerate fresh martyrs. 
Gladstone, who was nothing either of a tyrant 
or a judge, and who on the contrary encour- 
aged too many insurrections by his ill-disguised 
sympathies, was overwhelmed, and had to pass 
laws for public safety, a Coercion Act and an 
Arms Act, which forbade the carrying of weap- 
ons. But like a good Radical, more indulgent 
towards demagogy than towards established 
right and tradition, he at the same time granted 
to the Irish peasants a privilege which they had 
demanded in vain in 1870, and which was con- 
sidered by many to be exorbitant. Ireland's 
agrarian charter is known familiarly as the three 



AGRARIAN TROUBLES 97 

F's — "fixity of tenure, free sale, and fair rent." 
The law of 1870 had established the first two; 
that is to say, it guaranteed the prolongation 
of leases by forbidding arbitrary eviction, and 
allowed the tenant to alienate his rights, or be 
indemnified by the landlord if this was op- 
posed. There only remained fair rent : this was 
granted by the Act of 1881. The rent was in 
future to be fixed for fifteen years by a judicial 
decision in case of dispute between lessor and 
lessee, and after those fifteen years, upon the re- 
newal of the lease another redress is open, either 
to the landlord to have his rent raised, or to the 
tenant to have it lowered. The former can no 
longer evict the latter except for default of pay- 
ment, and on the whole the compulsory legal 
duration of fifteen years permits the tenant to 
sublet on much better terms. Is it necessary to 
lay stress upon the truly revolutionary charac- 
ter of these reforms? We are far from the Na- 
poleonic code and other Western legislation. 

In 1882, in order to get unfortunate men with- 
out resources out of difficulties, an Act of Ar- 
rears was passed, which made them a free gift 
of one year's rent up to the sum of £30. Finally 
from 1887 onwards, the insolvent tenant could 
remain on his holding for six months after the 
decree of eviction, with the option of selling or 
buying his holding during the interval. The 



98 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

landlords received no compensation for all these 
encroachments npon common law, and their 
property was all of a sndden considerably de- 
preciated. 

We may say that the Irish peasant now en- 
joyed an unusual security, and would be envied 
by our countrymen — if happiness could be given 
by laws alone, and if individual qualities of 
initiative and perseverance were not worth a 
hundred times more. 

Was Ireland satisfied at having obtained what 
she had demanded so often? Not a bit of it. 
The agitators, upset at seeing wrongs evaporate, 
began to invent others. Realizing that the ten- 
ants looked like settling down, and giving the 
new regime an honest trial, Parnell, no doubt 
in obedience to his American supporters who did 
not want peace at any price, issued an interdict 
and did his best to make the law of 1881 a fail- 
ure. Gladstone, indignant at this outrageous 
bad faith, lost patience and imprisoned Parnell 
and Dillon. There were plenty of pretexts, and 
hundreds of incitements to rioting and crime 
would have justified these arrests long before. 
The Land League retorted by enjoining the farm- 
ers to pay no rent, and the winter passed in a 
state of ferment. 

All of a sudden, in May, 1882, Gladstone, with 
one of his characteristic whims, repented him of 



AGE AM AN TROUBLES 99 

his firmness, decided to change both personnel 
and policy, set the prisoners free, parted from 
two Ministers who declined to return to the fee- 
ble tactics previously tried — Lord Cowper, the 
Viceroy, and Mr. Forster, Chief Secretary for 
Ireland — and sent in their place Lord Spencer 
and Lord Frederick Cavendish. 

The reply of the Leaguers was worthy of their 
antecedents. The two Ministers, representatives 
of clemency and laissez-faire, arrived in Dublin 
on May 6th, 1882. That same evening Lord 
Frederick and his under-secretary Thomas 
Burke were walking in Phoenix Park, and were 
stabbed to death. This notorious crime was 
epoch-making; it ought to have shown all future 
Governments once and for all that it is impos- 
sible to parley with terrorism, and that it is folly 
to pat a mad dog. Mr. Asquith and his Radicals 
ventured, to do so once more, and misfortune 
overtook them; no one was surprised by their 
disaster in 1916. 

Gladstone, death in his soul, had once more 
to resign himself to stern treatment ; his Crimes 
Prevention Act of July, 1882, was at last the 
triumph of common sense. There had been 
2,597 agrarian crimes during the first half of 
that year; there were only 836 in the second 
half. It killed the Land League, and another 
society, the National League, took up its role 



100 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

and its program with no less hatred, but with 
rather more circumspection. When the Crimes 
Prevention Act, passed for three years, expired 
in July, 1885, there were immediately 543 crimes 
during the second half-year as opposed to 373 
during the first half, and three times more people 
were boycotted. 

During the summer of 1885 Gladstone was 
replaced for some months by Lord Salisbury and 
a Conservative Government, and Ireland lost 
nothing thereby. She was treated to less 
rhetoric, but in exchange she was given a great 
practical and constructive law. It is as well to 
note that the contrast between the two parties 
has been accentuated since this time; the Lib- 
erals have been more and more inclined to treat 
Ireland to fine speeches and sloppy sympathy,, 
encourage her in her tempers and excite her ir- 
ritability; the Tories on the other hand never 
trifle with miscreants, insist upon submission 
to law and order before coming to words, but 
never refuse a conscientious and kindly exam- 
ination of grievances, and in order to remove 
them stinting neither material sacrifices nor the 
concession of principles. 

By the Land Acts of 1885 known as the Ash- 
bourne Acts they proved to the demagogues 
that it is possible to give to the poor without 
robbing the rich as Parnell and Gladstone 



AGRARIAN TROUBLES 101 

wished to do. With one step, after fifteen years 
of interventionist muddles, of Radical and Com- 
munist Utopias, we have returned to the path of 
common sense. 

To force a landlord to tolerate indefinitely a 
tenant who never pays him ; to give the latter an 
unlimited right to sublet and to deny the land- 
lord a choice of tenants, to tax the assessment 
of rent — all this may be very well-meaning, but 
it is a mockery of social peace and elementary 
economic laws. If you really wish to increase 
the number of small holdings, you must have the 
courage to curb popular acquisitiveness and pay 
honestly for what you are going to distribute. 
In two words, before you subdivide, purchase if 
possible, expropriate if necessary ; this was done 
by Ashbourne's, Balfour's, and Wyndham's 
Acts. 

In virtue of Ashbourne's Act the Exchequer 
advanced to the tenants £5,000,000 sterling to 
acquire the land of those landlords who were 
anxious to sell ; the purchaser to repay the State 
in forty-nine yearly installments. The subsidy, 
doubled in 1888, was exhausted in 1891, but had 
given 25,000 former tenants possession of their 
holdings. 

The success of this vast purchase system sur- 
passed all hopes, but we must admit that the 
English lender ran a great risk in face of the 



102 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

troubled state of Ireland, her incurable contempt 
for Saxon laws, and the fact that the debtors 
denied the "usurpers' " right to any mortal 
thing. By toiling, learning, by paying their in- 
stallments regularly, by becoming more honest, 
more worthy, more interested in progress and 
technical improvements, the farmers proved that 
the Irish people is worth more than its leaders. 
Unfortunately in 1885 the leaders were still its 
masters, and Parnell the national hero. 
• • • • • 

The following year there arose a new factor 
in the situation, of the greatest importance for 
explaining the course of Anglo-Irish relations 
from 1886 to the present day, the interplay of 
parties, and the development of political pro- 
grams; Gladstone returned to power with too 
small a Liberal majority, and had to supplement 
it by relying upon the eighty-two votes of the 
Nationalist party. Ireland was now the arbiter 
of the laws and government of her hereditary 
enemy. This situation, with all the extortions 
which it brings in its train, has been repeated 
since on several occasions. 

Gladstone was probably in favor of Home 
Rule before 1886, but he had been the head of 
the Cabinet for more than ten years before he 
dared to throw in his lot with this measure. 
This time Parnell would not allow him to shuffle. 



AGRARIAN TROUBLES 103 

and he introduced the first Home Rule Bill on 
April 8th, 1886. It is unnecessary to enumerate 
the chief features of this abortive scheme. 

A week later Gladstone paid the Nationalists 
the second half of his ransom, by proposing a 
perfectly iniquitous scheme for agrarian spolia- 
tion. He wanted to purchase in three years, in 
order to divide among the peasants, the proper- 
ties of the Irish landlords at exactly half the 
valuation which had been put upon them at a 
recent census, which had made a notoriously in- 
adequate estimate. These expedients of a dema- 
gogue in distress met with a just return; Eng- 
land was not yet soft enough to capitulate to 
Fenians and boycotters. One of Gladstone's first 
lieutenants, Joseph Chamberlain, formerly an 
intractable Radical, suddenly fired by patriotism 
as Mr. Lloyd George has been in our day, 
sounded the alarm and withdrew his allegiance. 
Old John Bright, one of the glories of English 
Radicalism, did likewise ; the dissenting Liberals 
took the name of Liberal-Unionists, and joined 
the Conservatives. 

Besides this exchange of shots between the 
parliamentary patrols there was another move- 
ment, we might almost call it a popular convul- 
sion, which hastened the reaction of English' 
public opinion. 

Protestant Ulster, which we have had occasion 



104 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

to mention so frequently during the history of 
the two preceding centuries, had been fairly 
quiet since the Union of 1800. Her great moral 
and national interests were safe, and, feeling se- 
cure under Imperial protection, she had pre- 
ferred to live in peace, working and developing 
her magnificent industries, rather than waste 
her time over the follies of her cousins in the 
south. 

All of a sudden Ulster was roused. Her 
awakening was rude, the coalition of the great 
Liberal party and Parnell aroused all her fears. 
Was it not once more to be handed over in bond- 
age to a Dublin Parliament, and no longer a 
Parliament like Grattan's, dominated and kept 
under control by London? When Ulster real- 
ized that she was to be betrayed, abandoned to 
Fenians, dynamiters, boycotters, there were ter- 
rible riots in Belfast from June to the following 
January, and England was warned that hence- 
forth Home Rule would not save her from the 
Irish nightmare. The rising of Ulster and these 
Belfast incidents are the real point of departure 
of the whole modern phase of the Irish question. 

Finally, on August 5th, 1885, in spite of the 
compelling eloquence and prodigious activity of 
"the Grand Old Man," the nation confided its 
mandate to* Lord Salisbury, and approved his 
program of Irish policy — "twenty years of 



AGRARIAN TROUBLES 105 

resolute government." The promise was kept, 
and an opportunity soon presented itself. 

The Irish Land Leaguers, surprised by the de- 
feat of their English allies, conceived fresh tac- 
tics known as the "plan of campaign." The 
peasants were ordered not to pay more rent 
than they considered reasonable, and if the land- 
lord did not accept the offer, they were to hand 
over the sum to a committee of the League. 
The latter would then indemnify the evicted 
tenants from these funds. What Irishman could 
resist this temptation? He had no idea what the 
League meant to do with his money ; an inquiry 
in 1892 exposed the fact that it had received 
£235,000, and had only refunded £125,000 to the 
evicted. The rest had been absorbed as a con- 
tribution to the national propaganda. That re- 
calls the Irish-American who sent $25 to Par- 
nell, "$5 for bread and $20 for lead." 

In face of this return to anarchy, a man arose 
to save Ireland in spite of herself, by a policy of 
justice and firmness. Lord Salisbury handed 
over the direction of Irish affairs to Mr. Arthur 
Balfour, one of the finest figures among modern 
statesmen. Ireland for a long time feared and 
vilified his name, but has ended by respecting it. 

He began by displaying firmness; he sup- 
pressed the League, put rebellious districts un- 
der the iron heel of emergency laws, ran to 



106 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

ground criminals and inciters to crime, took 
from them the privilege of being heard before 
corrupt or intimidated juries. Mr. Balfour had 
the sense to turn a deaf ear to all outcry, vitu- 
perations, false indignation, and sham pathos. 
His business was to restore order and see that 
the law was supreme — and the law was supreme. 
Ireland, whether she knows it or not, owes to 
him the foundations of her present prosperity, 
security for her capital and the protection of 
honest workers. 

On the other hand he knew when to show 
mercy to the unfortunate and justice to honest 
men. We have already quoted the Act of 1887, 
granting to the insolvent tenant a considerable 
period in which to reinstate himself. In 1891 
Mr. Balfour, realizing the good results of the 
Ashbourne Act, conceived a vaster application; 
he obtained from Parliament a credit of 
£30,000,000. 

A Congested Districts Board was authorized 
to distribute this sum, either where needs were 
pressing or where good opportunities for pur- 
chase arose. 

This Board, which obviously plays a consider- 
able part in the life of Ireland, has not by any 
means done what was expected of it. Mr. Bal- 
four and his party, though opposed to the legisla- 
tive separation of the two islands for strong 



AGRARIAN TROUBLES 107 

reasons and in the highest interests, were yet 
most willing to grant Ireland a large share in 
self-government. They deemed it wise to arrive 
at this progressively and to begin by granting 
a moderate amount of administrative autonomy ; 
the Congested Districts Board was the first at- 
tempt, and for that reason it had to consist of 
a majority of Irishmen. Mr. Balfour was soon 
undeceived. The Board was dominated from the 
first by cranks with economic theories, and by 
patriots who were more anxious to injure the 
English than to benefit their own people. Its 
influence and its millions were soon used as 
political instruments; it forgot its primary ob- 
ject, and became a nest of intrigue. 

The experience was useful none the less, and 
Mr. Balfour must be congratulated. Some are 
grateful to him for giving a practical demon- 
stration that Ireland is in too great a hurry, and 
is not yet ripe for the longed-for autonomy. 
Others, the Irish, ought to thank him for this 
great concession, a first step towards the path- 
way of their dreams — but when will an Irishman 
thank an Englishman? 

In 1893 the Irish had another brief spell of de- 
lirious joy. Gladstone returned to power with a 
slender majority, once more at the mercy of the 
Nationalist vote, and brought in his second 
Home Rule Bill. It was more complex than the 



108 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

Bill of 1885; besides its Parliament at Dublin, 
Ireland, was still to have eighty members at 
Westminster. They would not be allowed to 
vote on questions which only concerned England 
and Scotland, but Gladstone himself confessed 
that "it passes the wit of man" to draw a prac- 
tical distinction between imperial and non- 
imperial affairs. 

England has always a weakness for Liberal 
politics, but she could not tolerate being handed 
over to the mercy of eighty Irish rebels when 
their votes were needed; Gladstone, attempting 
to put this yoke upon her for the second time, 
was angrily turned out. Ulster's cry of distress 
rang out once more, mass meetings were held 
everywhere, and the House of Lords threw out 
Gladstone's Bill by 419 votes to 41. The General 
Election of 1895 confirmed this verdict, and 
turned the Radicals out of power for ten years. 
The hereditary Chamber had interpreted the na- 
tional will with more courage and loyalty than 
the demagogues. 

Mr. Gerald Balfour succeeded his brother as 
Chief Secretary for Ireland, and proposed a new 
formula — "kill Home Rule with kindness." He 
began by the Land Act of 1896, deciding uni- 
formly in favor of the tenantry several contested 
points in the Act of 1891, and giving them a num- 
ber of small privileges, which amounted for the 



AGRARIAN TROUBLES 109 

landlords to considerable sacrifices without com- 
pensation. For example there was the obliga- 
tion to sell to the occupiers every bankrupt es- 
tate in the hands of a liquidator; for all im- 
provements to a property made since 1850, a 
legal presumption was given in favor of the 
tenant, etc. 

Two more important works are due to Mr. 
Gerald Balfour — namely, a Board of Agriculture 
for Ireland, and the great Act of 1898 on Local 
Government. 

The new Ministry was entitled the "Irish De- 
partment of Agriculture and other Industries 
and Technical Instruction." To it were trans- 
ferred the various functions which till then had 
been scattered among other ill coordinated De- 
partments — management and distribution of 
subsidies, inspections, introduction of modern 
methods, organization of professional instruction 
and education in general. The principal innova- 
tion was to hand over all this expenditure to 
Irishmen, and to Irishmen elected by their 
fellows. 

His other work, the Act of 1898 on Local Gov- 
ernment, starts from the same principle — that is 
to say, it lets the Irish more and more direct 
their affairs themselves. Mr. Gerald Balfour 
took up his brother's idea, and made it a suc- 
cess; this reform gave Ireland the right to iix 



110 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

provincial rates and do what she would with 
them by letting her elect County and District 
Councils. It was an extension of the experience 
attempted by Mr. Arthur Balfour in his Con- 
gested Districts Board of 1891; a step farther, 
taken with prudence and precaution, towards 
the autonomy of the Nationalist program. 

Alas! the practical results were not much 
more brilliant, for these Councils did little use- 
ful work, and much base and fruitless agitation. 
Inaugurated in 1899, they at once seized the op- 
portunity to demonstrate to the conciliatory Em- 
pire the furies of Irish hatred ; almost all of them 
passed resolutions insulting the Crown and sym- 
pathizing with the Boers, and at every English 
reverse they publicly applauded the victorious 
enemy. During those dark days of defeat Ire- 
land really tasted unmixed joy. 

The generosities of the British Parliament, 
agrarian or political concessions, far from ap- 
peasing bitterness, only made the Irish more 
greedy and more threatening; in spite of receiv- 
ing their due, they made more exacting demands. 
As all landlords did not despoil themselves at 
the same moment, and as they had to wait for 
opportunities to purchase, some counties and 
some tenants got satisfaction quicker than the 
others. And the latter became jealous and got 
tired of waiting. 



AGRARIAN TROUBLES 111 

In 1898 there appeared the most recent of the 
agrarian leagues, the "United Irish League"; 
soon every self-respecting patriot belonged to it. 
It demanded two things — the suppression of 
pasture lands, and compulsory purchase — the 
radical expropriation of recalcitrant landlords. 
"Force the landlords to sell us their land." It 
had recourse to all the violent methods of earlier 
leagues, boycotting, refusal to pay rent, and 
so on. 

The landlords, weary of these continual fights, 
summoned the leaders of the League to confer 
with them, promised them that they would be 
only too glad to sell if they were only better com- 
pensated, and they agreed to submit to the Gov- 
ernment proposals emanating from both parties ; 
the result of this was the last great agrarian law, 
the Wyndham Land Act, or Irish Land Purchase 
Act of 1903. This heroic measure opened an 
enormous credit, first of all estimated at a total 
of £100,000,000 and later at £180,000,000, raised 
by annual loans of £5,000,000 on London. The 
landlords who sold and tenants who bought 
could debate their price freely and have it rati- 
fied by three Estates Commissioners. 

The Treasury gives the seller an addition of 
12 per cent, on the price. The purchasers no 
longer pay off by annual installments for forty- 
nine years, as by the Act of 1885, but at sixty- 



112 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

eight and a half years' purchase — that is to say, 
at 314 per cent, per annum on the capital ad- 
vanced by the State to the landlord. In a word, 
the State purchases outright with English money 
the whole of the Irish land to hand it over to 
the natives, and takes all the risks of non-repay- 
ment, of economic crises, and of political revo- 
lution. 

Any other country but Ireland would have 
been profuse in its thanks. People sometimes 
venture to compare the Irish to the Poles of 
Posen and the landlords to the Junkers, but they 
forget that the laws of Herr von Bulow have the 
opposite effect, by expropriating the natives in 
favor of imported colonists — after the manner 
of James I, and Cromwell, but without the ex- 
cuse of having insurrections to put down. 

From this date agrarian grievances — if not 
discontent — have disappeared, and I will bring 
my summary to an end. The number of evictions 
fell from 5,200 in 1881 to 670 in 1895. Up to 
1906 fair rents had been judicially fixed to 
480,000 holdings, with an average reduction of 
20 per cent, (see Report of Irish Land Commis- 
&lonj 1905-6) : the total reduction amounted to 
more than 172,500,000 francs. 

But lastly, and more important than all, the 
Irish people has changed its social condition. 



AGRARIAN TROUBLES 113 

Of about 550,000 occupiers, 74,000 had already 
become owners under Acts passed before 1903. 
It is calculated that 240,000 others will profit by 
Wyndham's Act. "Almost half the land under 
cultivation in Ireland has already passed, or is 
about to do so, from the landlord to the tenant. 
This measure has changed the face of Ireland." 
"The Act of 1903 has brought about the only 
happy transformation which English legislation 
has ever effected in Ireland." This was recog- 
nized on November 23rd, 1908, in the House of 
Commons by two men who were not over-indul- 
gent to the Conservatives — Mr. Birrell, the 
Liberal Chief Secretary, and Mr. TV. O'Brien, 
the founder of the United Irish League. 

This was a piece of good legislation, a promis- 
ing evolution on wise and sound lines. But 
troubles continued, and we will speak of them 
again later on, for Anglophobe politicians and 
separatists did not intend giving up this weapon, 
and they wanted, in spite of all that had gone 
before, to protest against grievances which no 
longer existed and against abuses for which 
awards had already been made. They have been 
given the land; they now ask for the moon. 
Faster, faster, expropriate everybody, down with 
the landlords! Granted, but must selfish Eng- 
land foot the bill again? Elsewhere I have said 
on this subject: "Either this expropriation 



114 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

would be robbery and confiscation — that is to 
say, it would not give an equitable return for 
the value of the land — or it would be financially 
impossible." In those days we were not ac- 
quainted with the experience of the idealist 
cranks in Eussia or the felicities of Bolshevik 
expropriation. 

Mr. Birrell, the Radical Minister, and crony 
of the Irish demagogues, tried in 1908 to satisfy 
them. He paid due homage to the admirable 
results of Wyndham's Act, but he did his best 
to make it unrecognizable. The premium to the 
landlord was in future to be no more than 3 
per cent. The seller was in future not to be 
paid in cash, but in Government securities at 
their nominal value, in spite of the disappoint- 
ment caused by this same clause before 1903. 
As naturally the landlords would not show much 
enthusiasm for a transaction of this nature, their 
consent was to be dispensed with; the three 
Estates Commissioners and the Congested Dis- 
tricts Board were to settle all these purchases 
as they chose with coercive power, they alone 
were to iix the price of sale, and were to make 
symmetrical holdings, were to transplant 
peasants who had no desire to leave their native 
village, and so on. 

The projects of Mr. Birrell have failed la- 
mentably, as was predicted. Why in the name 



AGRARIAN TROUBLES 115 

of heaven could he not remember Gladstone's 
misfortunes, and the disastrous failure of dis- 
honest laws of spoliation? In six years under 
Wyndham's Act 115,000 tenancies had been pur- 
chased, that is 19,000 a year. BirrelPs Act in 
three years only liquidated 2,154, no more than 
700 a year. 

However that may be, we have shown in this 
summary how much truth there is in the state- 
ment that England has done nothing for Ire- 
land. Nothing? How about forty-three Acts 
or amendments between 1860 and 1904! The 
Irish must be joking. Particulars and details 
of the various Acts mentioned may be open to 
criticism by punctilious jurists or politicians on 
the make, but they do not deny the generous 
spirit which permeates the mass of these reforms. 

What evidence can be better than that of John 
Redmond, speaking in 1915 in his town of Water- 
ford to Irishmen from Australia? 

"I went to Australia to make an appeal on 
behalf of an enslaved, famine-hunted, despair- 
ing people, a people in the throes of a semi- 
revolution, bereft of all political liberties and 
engaged in a life-and-death struggle with the 
system of a most brutal and drastic coercion" 
. . . (We will omit his exaggerations.) 

"Only thirty-three or thirty-four years have 
passed since then, but what a revolution has oc- 
curred in the interval! To-day the people, 



116 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

broadly speaking, own the soil ; to-day the labor- 
ers live in decent habitations; to-day there is 
absolute freedom in the local government and the 
local taxation of the country; to-day we have 
the widest Parliament in the municipal fran- 
chise; to-day we know that the evicted tenants 
who are the wounded soldiers of the land war, 
have been restored to their homes or to other 
homes as good as those from which they had 
been originally driven. We know that the con- 
gested districts, the scene of some of the most 
awful horrors of the old famine days, have been 
transformed, that the farms have been enlarged, 
decent dwellings have been provided, and a new 
spirit of hope and independence is to-day 
amongst the people. 

"We know that the towns legislation has been 
passed facilitating the housing of the working- 
classes. ... So far as the town tenants are con- 
cerned we have this consolation, that we have 
passed for Ireland an Act whereby they are pro- 
tected against arbitrary eviction, and are given 
compensation not only for disturbance from their 
homes, but for the goodwill of the business they 
had created — a piece of legislation far in advance 
of anything obtained for the town tenants of 
England. I may add far in advance of any legis- 
lation obtained for the town tenants of any 
other country. 

"We know that we have at last won educa- 
tional freedom in university education for most 
of the youth of Ireland, and we know that in 
primary and standard education the thirty-four 
years that have passed have witnessed an enor- 



AGRARIAN TROUBLES 117 

mous advance in efficiency and in the means pro- 
vided for bringing efficiency about. To-day we 
have a system of old-age pensions in Ireland 
whereby every old man and woman over seventy 
is saved from the workhouse, free to spend their 
last days in comparative comfort. We have a 
system of national industrial insurance which 
provides for the health of the people, and makes 
it impossible for the poor hard-working man and 
woman, when sickness comes to the door, to be 
carried away to the workhouse hospital, and 
makes it certain that they will receive decent 
Christian treatment during their illness." 

Poor Ireland! Cruel Albion! 



CHAPTER Si 

Approach of the crisis, 1906-16 

Such was Ireland's past. She has suffered 
much, and she has often suffered from her own 
faults. She has indulged in recrimination with 
or without reason, she has gorged herself with 
racial hatred, and prided herself on her violence. 
Those who know her well; those who see her 
at close quarters, assure us that nothing has 
changed. The fact that she now rebels against 
oppression which no longer exists makes one in- 
clined to believe that her insurrections in the 
past had no better justification. 

Is not the psychology of this race baffling—* 
chafing under caresses, more discontented at 
every effort to satisfy it? We ought to give 
some consideration to the Irish character in or- 
der to explain these paradoxes, but you can 
judge of it by deeds. The Irish and their friends 
will tell you that they are not bad at heart; 
that may be, but it is unfortunate that appear- 
ances so often oblige them to protest their inno- 
cence. I am sorry to say that in this respect I 

118 



APPROACH OF THE CRISIS, 1906-16 119 

cannot profess that indulgent sentimentality 
which only pities the unsuccessful rebels. 

But surely, you will say, are not some of the 
revolts justified? Caresses have their charm, 
says the mastiff in the fable, but the chain is 
there! Is this true of Ireland in the twentieth 
century? Is it possible that she really believes 
herself to be justified? Unfortunately there is 
no doubt that she is made to believe it. But for 
ourselves, why should we be deceived as to the 
justification of these grievances? 

In our summary of this question, complex as 
are all national questions, we have come across 
three elements, the religious, the agrarian, and 
the political. We have seen that the first two 
have been removed. We shall be reproached for 
having forgotten a fourth, the sentimental; it 
certainly plays a great part in the patriotism of 
the mystic and impulsive Celts. As a matter 
of fact it is principally a plaything in the hands 
of political leaders. 

There are still some religious fanatics and 
dissatisfied peasants, but their accusations are 
too fanciful nowadays and too unreal to carry 
much weight. The politicians are the only peo- 
ple who pay any attention to them, and they use 
them to substantiate their pleas. 

What are these politicians after? Cynics will 
say they want to be members of Parliament and 



120 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

councilors, to get profits and perquisites out of 
a proletariat which is so easy to deceive and in- 
timidate. But they are eloquent — with a Latin 
eloquence, the sounding phrase and oratorical 
gift unfamiliar to the English — and they vow 
that they are going to die for independence, 
for the nation, for their country. They do not 
all lie, for some of them have indeed died; and 
those who die for a good cause, even for a good 
illusion, always deserve respect. But on the 
other hand, all of them do not die ; they take good 
care to survive in order to watch over the spoils. 
Ah ! when there is a Parliament in Dublin, then 
they will not be members, they will be ministers, 
secretaries of State, magistrates, treasurers! 
What a vision of Arcady! 

Away with these petty suspicions, and let us 
give these men all the credit we can. But we 
must not be surprised if Ulster, which sees it all 
at closer quarters and has greater interests at 
stake, jeers at our confidence and does not 
share it. 

The present Irish question, after all agrarian 
and religious grievances are eliminated, is in 
the last resort nothing but a political question 
of autonomy, separation of two races, and the 
creation of a new State. But this new State 
ought to comprise Ulster, who will not have it 
at any price. And thus you have two Irish 



APPKOACH OF THE CRISIS, 1906-16 121 

questions instead of one, the question of Ireland 
and the question of Ulster. 

We have insisted upon the distant historical 
origin of this schism, we have seen the conflict 
calm down after 1800, and flare up again in 
1885 through Gladstone's fault. The parlia- 
mentary necessities of the English Liberal party 
have brought about the present impasse which 
we will describe. 

In 1906 the Liberals had a great triumph, the 
country repudiated Chamberlain's scheme for 
Imperial protection. Hardly any other subject 
had been mentioned during the electoral cam- 
paign, and it was evident that those returned 
had neither asked for nor received a mandate 
to grant Home Rule to Ireland. Two of the 
new Ministers had the courage to confess it. 

Mr. Asquith, on January 4th, 1906, said that 
their majority had been given them to defend 
free trade. To endeavor to use it in order to 
introduce Home Rule would be a political dis- 
honesty. . . . The Government would take steps 
to give Ireland a more enlightened and liberal 
administration. And Sir Edward Grey said the 
same day that the great question of this election 
had been free trade; they had been elected for 
that, and it would not be loyal to profit by it in 
• order to establish an Irish Parliament, but that 



122 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

they were free to develop local government in 
Ireland. 

The Liberal majority was a safe one. With 
the support of Nationalists and Socialists, Camp- 
bell Bannerman's Cabinet had 354 more votes 
than the Unionists; without those allies he still 
had 104 more votes than all opposition combined, 
and therefore he was no longer the slave of the 
Irish vote as Gladstone had been. But the Gov- 
ernment's tenderness for Ireland was never in 
doubt. Most of the members of the Cabinet were 
Gladstone's former lieutenants, and convinced 
Home Rulers; the son of the Grand Old Man 
was of their number. The new Viceroy, Lord 
Aberdeen, had already held the same post in 
1886; the new Chief Secretary for Ireland, Mr. 
James Bryce, a noted jurist and historian, was 
appointed in the following year Ambassador to 
Washington. All these Gladstonians were bound 
sooner or later to take up the favorite schemes 
of their former leader: moreover, they had all 
sworn to do so when in opposition. It was 
merely a question of time and opportunity. 

"Ireland is quiet," said Mr. Bryce when he 
took office. A year later Mr. Birrell declared 
that Ireland was more peaceful than she had 
ever been for six hundred years. It was true, 
thanks to their predecessors. The unfortunate 
thing is, that when one party is turned out it 



APPROACH OF THE CRISIS, 1906-16 123 

is the fashion to abuse the best work it did, and 
to try to do something different for the pure 
pleasure of contradiction. That is what was 
about to happen. 

In 1906 nothing very striking occurred; the 
parties were settling down and taking stock of 
one another. Then very soon the Nationalists 
wanted something to show — first of all a new 
personnel in the administration at Dublin, men 
who were agreeable to them, and who would 
shut their eyes to their leagues and boycottings. 

In 1907 Mr. Bryce went off to the United 
States and his place was taken by Mr. Augustine 
Birrell. Mr. Birrell is a wit, and an amusing 
essay-writer, a lawyer and man of letters, a good 
speaker and not a bad fellow — he has no enemies 
—but too dilettante to understand that Ireland 
sometimes needs to feel that she is being gov- 
erned. It took him nine years to learn that you 
cannot trifle with cattle-lifters and armed rebels, 
and that weak indulgence is culpable; it took 
the rebellion of 1916 to arouse him from his 
placid dreams. His invariable formula was to 
allow Ireland an autonomy de facto while wait- 
ing for its constitutional sanction — but an au- 
tonomy quite different from that of the county 
councils and so on, with which up to now she 
had been content. He simply put himself in 
the hands of the Nationalists, and whatever 



124 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

they approved or condemned, the Minister en- 
dorsed ; he was inspired by their slightest wishes, 
took their advice and served them as a man of 
straw. As for the results, he went by what they 
told him and everything seemed to him to be for 
the best in the best of all possible worlds. I 
will now tell you something of the men in whom 
he placed his blind confidence, and something of 
the facts, the gravity of which he denied in or- 
der to please them. 

Agrarian reforms, especially those of 1903, 
had brought about in Ireland not only a material 
but a moral revolution. Tenants and landlords 
had come in contact over negotiations for pur- 
chase, had usually exhibited mutual good feel- 
ing, and their traditional animosity had given 
way to a spirit of peacefulness. At one moment 
there was really some emulation to repair the 
ruins; Ulster and England were delighted to 
see signs of a practical spirit, unknown before, 
among the Celts, and they thought it promised 
to be Ireland's salvation. The principal busi- 
ness men of the island — Lord Iveagh, owner of 
the famous Guinness breweries, and Lord Pirrie, 
head of the huge shipbuilding yards at Belfast 
— offered to subsidize between them a motor ser- 
vice to open up the poorer and more remote dis- 
tricts where railways would not be likely to 
penetrate. Lord Castletown started again 



APPKOACH OF THE CRISIS, 1906-16 125 

propaganda for local industries, which had de- 
creased lamentably, by a great exhibition of 
national industries. Good seed was sown, men 
were at work, and they hoped to reap the harvest. 
Between 1895 and 1905 deposits in the savings 
banks had doubled. 

Lord Charles Beresford opened a club in Lon- 
don for Irishmen of every opinion; Londoners 
even wore shamrock on Saint Patrick's day. The 
two countries had begun to understand one an- 
other, perhaps they might end by mutual liking. 
At this point the politician intervened. Alas! 
Ireland is incapable of resisting the appeal of 
agitators and extremists. The politician rea- 
soned on the following simple lines : he saw that 
this good understanding damaged his prestige, 
and that there was no room for him in this har- 
monious concert. He raised his traditional 
alarm. "We shall be seduced by benefits — away 
with benefits ! If the English are good to us, and 
if we accept their bounties, how can we still 
abuse them in order to demand independence? 
Who will bother about independence if every- 
thing is working smoothly without it? We must 
see that things do not work smoothly." Let 
Ireland perish sooner than Nationalism! 

This crusade was preached as early as 1903 
by Mr. John Dillon. Mr. Dillon is now the 
leader of the Nationalist Parliamentary party 



126 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

since Mr. Redmond's death in 1918. He is sixty- 
seven years of age. In his youth, in the days 
when as Parnell's favorite he was imprisoned 
with him for misdemeanors of the same kind, 
he was the type of the Irish extremist. I should 
not like to say that he is so no longer; during 
the war he made some very disquieting speeches. 

In 1903, then, Dillon attacked the leaders of 
the Nationalist party who were willing to make 
a loyal attempt by means of the Wyndham Act 
to give the people at last the land they longed 
for so dearly. Dillon thought them feeble and 
foolish. He took upon himself to see that con- 
ciliation failed, confessing quite openly his aim 
and his objects. He harried especially the 
Anglo-Irish nobility and landlords who were 
most benevolent to their tenants, vowing that 
he would make them tired of their benevolence 
and making no effort at concealment. 

No sooner was the Act passed than he organ- 
ized skillful obstruction in order to nullify the 
working of it. As it was necessary for the 
purchase to obtain an annual loan of £5,000,000 
from English capitalists, Dillon did his utmost 
to discourage them and discredit the whole busi- 
ness by stating in the House of Commons that 
the Irish peasant would never pay his annuities 
and that the English investor was taking a peril- 
ous risk. Mr. Wyndham, having foreseen a 



APPROACH OF THE CKISIS, 1906-16 127 

deficit, calculated on being able to reduce the 
estimate for the police by £240,000, by cutting 
down the number of constables by 2,000 now that 
the island was so much more peaceful. The 
opponents instantly provoked cattle drives and 
agrarian crimes without the least excuse, and 
succeeded not only in preventing any reduction 
in the constabulary, but actually had it rein- 
forced at an extra expenditure of £100,000. 
Finally, Mr. Dillon knew that the land legisla- 
tion of 1908 would annul all the good effects of 
the Wyndham Act, and for that reason he ap- 
proved it. In April, 1910, Mr. O'Brien an- 
nounced that he had negotiated with Mr. Lloyd 
George for a reduction in Ireland's contribution, 
and had found the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
quite prepared to do it, but Mr. Dillon had de- 
liberately put a spoke in the wheel. 

Was I not right in saying that Irish discon- 
tent is more or less a manufactured article? 

Since Mr. Birrell's regime, these tactics have 
had free play. From 1906 to 1908 crimes against 
property rose from 20 to 89; agrarian crimes 
from 20 to 128 ; non-agrarian crimes from 36 to 
65; cattle-driving from a negligible number to 
681; the number of persons put under the per- 
manent protection of the police from 196 to 335. 

From 1905 to 1908 attempts at murder rose 
from 11 to nearly 100; crimes committed by 



128 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

means of explosives or fire-arms from 61 to 213 ) 
cases of boycotting from 162 to 874 (Mr. Birrell 
for his part only counts 197 current cases of boy- 
cott and does not include those which achieved 
their aim during the year — that is to say, came 
to an end owing to the submission of the vic- 
tims). All this is done in broad daylight; the 
leagues hold their assizes, announce their judg- 
ments, the papers publish them with threats and 
openly proclaim an interdict against peaceful 
citizens without any steps being taken by the 
Government. A "Saturnalia" of crime, groans 
one magistrate. What does Mr. Birrell think 
of it? 

His reply is characteristic : "I will not simply, 
even for the sake of getting a few more convic- 
tions than I have been able to do up to the 
present time, break up the great Liberal tradi- 
tion and break up my own hopes for the future 
of Ireland." * He therefore released, after a 
fortnight, men who were condemned to three 
months' imprisonment. This was hardly an 
encouragement to the Bench. 

For the rest, he quibbled, and thought there 
were fewer crimes than in 1887 — he forgot that 
his police had orders not to be too zealous, and 
to tolerate a variety of things which formerly 
would have been severely repressed. Pressed 

1 House of Commons, February 23rd, 1909. 



APPROACH OF THE CRISIS, 1906-16 129 

by apprehensive questioners, lie forgot himself 
and said a foolish thing, "It is the duty of the 
Irish people to protect their property in person." 
What could be more encouraging for the tax- 
payer! Why should they pay taxes for police? 
The Chief Secretary also declared that boycot- 
ting is not of much consequence. The unfor- 
tunate victims were no doubt of a different 
opinion; among hundreds of others, Mr. Harris 
Martin, who could not go out without being 
surrounded by seven policemen — or any other 
landlord who, not wishing to sell his property 
at a loss of 50 per cent., saw his ricks burned, 
his beasts mutilated, his servants stoned, had 
shots fired at himself after dark, etc. . . . Mr. 
Birrell thought that was all quite harmless. De- 
cidedly Radicalism does not engender good faith 
— which is quite natural, since Radicalism means 
prejudice. 

Ireland has thus been handed over to the 
mercy of the leagues. Mr. Dillon and his friends 
are supreme. Mr. Redmond, who tried to pro- 
test in 1903, gave in long ago ; Mr. O'Brien, who 
protested, had to leave the party. 

I can give you another example of this ill- 
feeling and systematic obstruction. In spite of 
all the agitators, Ireland was on the way to be- 
come prosperous once more very speedily. One 
of her good geniuses, Sir Horace Plunkett, had 



130 IRELAND—AN ENEMY? 

at last given her good advice ; told her to work 
and reorganize her economic life by counting on 
herself and not upon the State as Providence. 
Politics could wait, they could come back to them 
later. Sir Horace did more than speak; he put 
his back into the business, and created an ad- 
mirable network of agricultural cooperative so- 
cieties, country Farmers' Loans Societies, etc. 
His sincerity, disinterestedness, conviction, and 
experience inspired every one with confidence 
and overcame ail obstacles. 

Where was he to raise the money to start these 
schemes? Once again from the so-called selfish 
English — the great cooperative union of Man- 
chester; in other words, the English working- 
man consented to advance the necessary funds. 

As the result of untiring devotion and in spite 
of the greatest difficulties, success was within 
reach. In 1908 the Irish Cooperative Society 
had 100,000 members, with a turnover of 
£2,000,000— a splendid result for small cultiva- 
tors of modest resources, most of them insolvent. 
In 1907 Irish trade showed an increase of 
£4,000,000 and of deposits in banks and savings 
banks in proportion. 

Ireland, with better days in prospect, was per- 
haps going to cease to complain! Instantly Sir 
Horace was suspected by Dillon's party, and the 
professional politicians performed prodigies of 



APPROACH OF THE CRISIS, 1906-16 131 

cunning in order to damage his work. As he 
always found them across his path, he had told 
them some biting truths in 1904 in his remark- 
able book, Ireland in the New Century. Having 
left Parliament in order to do something better 
than make futile speeches, he taunted them with 
wishing to revolutionize society before improving 
the individuals composing that society. Heaven 
knows that the Irish lower classes were back- 
ward in the extreme! The two systems were 
irreconcilable, and it was made quite plain to 
him; Campbell Bannerman's Radical Cabinet 
lent itself to the intrigue with the basest in- 
gratitude. 

The Conservatives had put Sir Horace at the 
head of the Department of Agriculture as the 
most competent man for the post, and he had 
proved his worth; the Nationalist rabble or- 
dained that he should be turned out in 1907, 
and the Liberals obeyed their behests with re- 
gret after the manner of Pontius Pilate. On 
the other hand, he had based his plans for co- 
operation upon a society of which he was the 
soul, the Irish Agricultural Organization So- 
ciety, and the Conservatives had realized its 
importance so keenly that they had allowed him 
a subsidy of £4,000 a year. The Nationalists had 
this removed in 1907 as a reward for twenty 
years' service. The Irish peasant would have to 



132 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

suffer for this pettiness, but what of that? 
Plunkett and his prosperity were thorns in the 
flesh of the agitators. 

In two years the peace of Ireland had gone to 
the deuce. Satisfied with their good work, the 
Nationalists were emboldened and took a high 
hand, demanding from the Cabinet that it should 
instantly introduce a fresh t Home Rule Bill. 
Mr. Birrell asked nothing better; but as we 
have seen, Mr. Asquith had made some embar- 
rassing declarations on this subject at the time 
of the last elections. The time had not yet come 
when the English voter could be treated as a 
negligible quantity. Yet there were some re- 
marks made during the debate on March 30th, 
1908, which are worth noting. 

Mr. John Redmond, the Irish leader, con- 
cluded with these words: 

"Now, I ask, what argument against Home 
Rule remains? Honestly I know of only one, 
and that is an argument which, put nakedly, 
would revolt the feelings of every man in this 
House — I mean the argument of fear— fear of 
the injury that Ireland with her 4,000,000 might 
be able to do to this nation of over 40,000,000 
if the Irish people had placed in their hands some 
measure of self-government. Sir, that argument 
is unworthy a great nation." 1 

1 House of Commons, March 30th, 1908. 



APPKOACH OF THE CKISIS, 1906-16 133 

In the name of the Unionists Lord Percy 
retorted : 

"There remains only the argument of senti- 
ment: 'Trust the Irish people and you will be 
rewarded with their enthusiastic loyalty.' Judi- 
cial separation, which is ordinarily regarded as 
at best a regrettable remedy for the evils of 
matrimony, is in the case of Ireland to be the 
means of effecting a 'union of hearts.' That is 
the language used in England and on English 
platforms, but in Ireland legal separation is ad- 
vocated as the prelude to divorce, and to the 
realization of Mr. Parnell's ambition to 'sever 
the last link which binds Ireland to England.' 
It is hardly surprising if, under these circum- 
stances, we prefer to incur the slight inconven- 
ience which arises from incompatibility of tem- 
per to running the certain risks which we should 
incur if we allowed our partner to set up busi- 
ness on her own account, and contract possibly 
a new alliance at our own lodge-gates with any 
enterprising neighbor who happened to have an 
eye to our plate and jewelry." 1 

1916 and the Irish-German alliance have shown 
which of the two was in the right. 

We should also note, as a new element in the 
problem, this sentence of Mr. Asquith's: 

"I have always regarded what is called Home 
Kule in Ireland as part and parcel ... of a 

1 House of Commons, March 30th, 1908. 



134 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

more comprehensive change. The constitntional 
problem ... is to set free this Imperial Par- 
liament for Imperial affairs, and in matters 
purely local to rely more and more on local opin- 
ion and local machinery." x 

Here we have the present bearing of this ques- 
tion of Irish or colonial autonomy, which hence- 
forth is embraced in the vast conception of 
Imperial Federation. 

By way of legislation during this period, be- 
sides the Land Act of 1908, of which we have 
seen the disastrous effects, Ireland obtained a 
Roman Catholic University, officially recognized, 
and afterwards Old Age Pensions, the greater 
part of the expense of which falls upon the Eng- 
lish tax-payer. 

. • • • • 

All of a sudden in 1909 there came a thunder- 
bolt. The House of Lords had just thrown down 
a challenge to the Radical- Socialist coalition, by 
throwing out Lloyd George's revolutionary 
Budget. He had to go to the country. The elec- 
tion which took place in January, 1910, gave 
the Unionists 111 more seats than in 1906, and 
the Liberals had 98 fewer. But the result could 
be interpreted in two ways; the Radical ma- 
jority which fell from 334 votes to 124 still re- 
mained a majority. The true conquerors were 

1 House of Commons, March 30th, 1908. 



APPKOACH OF THE CRISIS, 1906-16 135 

the Irish; for the third time they became the 
arbiters of British politics. Another weapon had 
been put into their hands, for the conflict which 
raged round the powers of the House of Lords 
seemed to them full of promise; were not the 
Lords responsible for having forced Mr. Glad- 
stone to submit his plans to the electorate on 
two occasions, and have them rejected? 

If Mr. Asquith wanted to take away from 
them this right of referendum, what could be 
better? said the Nationalists. We hold the 
stakes, we are masters of Mr. Asquith, we will 
make him do the trick and bring in Home Rule, 
and the Lords will not be able to appeal to the 
country any more. Mr. Redmond boasted about 
it in America at the Irish Convention at Buffalo 
in 1910, while Mr. Asquith was holding forth 
on the dignity of democracies. 

"I believe that the present leaders of the Lib- 
eral party are sincere. Whether they are sincere 
or not, we will make them — and we have got the 
power to do it — we will make them toe the line." 
This was done logically, coldly, cynically. The 
Parliament Act of 1911 first of all suppressed 
the veto of the Lords: the breach was made, it 
only remained to go through it. Mr. Asquith 
made out that the electors of 1910 gave him a 
sufficient mandate, a general mandate to destroy 
anything he chose, including Imperial security. 



136 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

In parenthesis I must tell you that Mr. Asquith 
had not even drafted his Home Rule Bill, and 
he did not introduce it until April, 1912; how 
could he maintain that the electors of 1910 had 
approved a text which was not in existence? 
No, the English electorate had not given the 
blank cheque which they were supposed to have 
done ; the real question was never brought up, it 
was evaded. The truth was another matter, and 
the Prime Minister had the courage to recognize 
it. "In introducing the measure the Government 
would be acting in strict fulfillment of pledges 
openly or deliberately given" 1 — the pledges of 
a party without a clear majority, which could 
not keep its power except by buying the eighty- 
four Irish votes. I will tell you how they were 
to set about it, and what they were to pass. 

First of all comes the question of procedure. 
It was certain that the Lords would throw out 
the Bill when passed by the Commons. Accord- 
ing to the Parliament Act the latter have to dis- 
cuss it again, and vote on it again after three 
readings. The Lords reject it again, and so on 
for three times. After the Lords have vetoed it 
for the third time, their consent is dispensed 
with and the Bill becomes law automatically. 

The principal clauses of Asquith's scheme 
were the following. An executive was to be set 

1 Speech to his constituents in Fife, October 21st, 1911. 



APPROACH OF THE CKISIS, 1906-16 13T 

up in Dublin, a Senate and a House of Commons, 
with the right to legislate for the peace, order, 
and good government of the country. They were 
not competent to deal with dynastic questions — ■ 
the army, navy, treaties, and other subjects of 
Imperial interest. 

To the Parliament at Westminster was re- 
served control of the operations for land pur- 
chase described above, old age pensions, Irish 
constabulary, Post Office savings banks, public 
loans prior to the present legislation. 

The Dublin Parliament was to be strictly pro- 
hibited from endowing, favoring, or persecuting 
and penalizing, directly or indirectly, any re- 
ligion whatsoever. 

Finally every law was subject to the Viceroy's 
veto, and could in the last resort be annulled by 
the Imperial Parliament. Irish representation 
at Westminster was reduced from 102 to 42 
members. 

Financial organization was evidently the most 
important point; in regard to that the English 
took still more precautions. The English Treas- 
ury was to continue to receive all taxes and cus- 
toms, except those of the Post Office. It would 
hand over to Ireland the necessary quota for 
the services for which she was responsible, a 
quota which was to be fixed by a joint commis- 
sion, Dublin would have the right to set up or 



138 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

abolish a tax, but if it chose to raise or reduce 
it, that was not to modify the quota which Lon- 
don would take for Imperial services. 

I must point out that under the Union which 
the Irish are so anxious to abolish Ireland costs 
the Imperial Treasury more than she brings in; 
the annual deficit is about £2,000,000 and in- 
creases every year as a result of land purchase, 
social legislation, workmen's insurance, etc. 
The Irish try to make out that the deficit is due 
to extravagant administration by the English, 
and they refuse to accept the debts of their in- 
heritance. Mr. Asquith agrees, and even gives 
the new Irish Government a free gift of £500,000 
a year for the expenses of establishment. 

Such is the great conquest of national au- 
tonomy which the Nationalists extracted from 
the Radical Cabinet. The reader will no doubt 
be surprised at their moderation, not to say their 
humility. What, is that all? All that shouting 
about so little? For this Constitution, taking 
it all round, is more humiliating than the Union 
of old. If it is no longer a state of tutelage, 
at all events the responsibility has remarkable 
limitations. There was therefore much wrath 
with its negotiators — smothered in Ireland (for 
there they were masters of the League and the 
League did not permit criticism), fierce in 
America. A disapproving cablegram was sent 



APPROACH OF THE CRISIS, 1906-16 139 

from the powerful society in the United States 
with the ambitious name of Clan-na-Gael, and 
signed by six judges of the Supreme Courts of 
New York and New Jersey, by a Governor of 
Rhode Island, by four judges of the secondary 
Courts of New York, Municipal Courts, etc. 1 
The Clan-na-Gael, which has been from early 
days the soul of Anglophobe conspiracy, had 
always provided the funds, and felt that it had 
been duped. 

But, looking more closely into the matter, say 
the Unionists, our American cousins are wrong 
to get excited about it. What really signifies in 
a Constitution is not the spirit which created it, 
nor even the accuracy of the text, but the spirit 
with which it is applied; policy resolves itself 
in the last resort into administrative action 
just as law does into judicial interpretations. 
Looked at from that point of view it is rather 
the Unionists who have cause to fear ! 

It is so easy to find thousands of trivial ways 
of annoying when one is steeped in hatred. Even 
bj a budget of inoffensive aspect it would be 
possible to put pressure upon Ulster, with whom 
there are old accounts to settle. It is so easy to 

1 It is not surprising that magistrates of high rank should 
appear in such a list; these American judges are chosen like 
our mayors and councillors in districts where the Irish voter 
rules the roost. 



140 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

cause injustice as between English and Irish in 
hundreds of spheres: trade marks, copyright, 
patents, and many more. The Irish program 
has always included Protection against Eng- 
land: in order not to alarm their friends the 
Liberal Free Traders, the Nationalists do not 
refer to it now, but who would count on that? 
The Celtic imagination is a fertile one; it will 
invent some way of penalizing English imports 
in favor of American — or now, alas! German 
imports. 

See what happens during the war. The ques- 
tion of food supplies is vital, and Ireland is one 
of the principal sources for over-populated Great 
Britain. If she refused to send over her surplus 
potatoes, dairy produce, meat, bacon, what a 
catastrophe there would be! Well, without 
Home Rule, she tries to play this scurvy trick; 
the Sinn Feiners intimidate the farmers who 
want to export their pigs, and vow that if they 
were masters it would be their supreme joy to 
starve the accursed English. The old motto still 
triumphs, "England's difficulty, Ireland's oppor- 
tunity." William II has "brilliant seconds" 
there! I am not even referring to all those 
military alliances with the enemy from Queen 
Elizabeth's reign to our days; we shall see far- 
ther on that Mr. Dillon was not ashamed of it. 

Mr. Asquith, so we are told, foresaw all that 



APPROACH OF THE CRISIS, 1906-16 141 

in his Home Rule Bill ; lie included in it all the 
desired guarantees and safeguards ; the last word 
will always rest with London. Is that the case? 
In point of fact it is impracticable. Provision 
for this veto has always been made in all the 
constitutions of autonomy granted to the 
colonies, but it has never been possible to apply 
it. English Free Traders have had to submit 
humbly to Canada's customs dues ; Conservative 
ministers have had to allow Australia to indulge 
in socialism. Under present conditions any 
reprimand or intervention on the part of the 
Imperial Cabinet would bring about a conflict 
which no one would venture to risk; and yet 
these colonies are well disposed to the mother 
country, as has been shown by the splendid vol- 
untary help which they have given her since 
1914 

What would happen in the case of Ireland? 
It would be civil war without a doubt. Her 
leaders have promised it often enough, and they 
are not in the humor to tolerate supervision of 
this kind. We have just had an edifying ex- 
ample of the sort of thing which would happen. 
Remember that the Bill of 1912, with Mr. Red- 
mond's express consent, reserved strictly to the 
Imperial Parliament all matters concerning the 
army and navy. On April 9th, 1918, after the 
reverse at Saint Quentin, Mr. Lloyd George, 



142 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

when he decided to call up Englishmen to the 
age of fifty-one, and even if necessary to fifty- 
six, wanted at the same time to apply conscrip- 
tion to young Irishmen of twenty-one, for the 
contrast was too unjust and could not be justi- 
fied any longer. Immediately there was a terrific 
storm from the Nationalist benches! 

"You have no right to do that without the con- 
sent of an Irish Parliament," Of what value 
is the promise made to Mr. Asquith concerning 
the "reserved services" or Imperial services? 

No, all those imposing safeguards stipulated 
in the Bill only make old political philosophers 
like Mr. Balfour laugh and no doubt they amuse 
Mr. Asquith himself. Others, Ulster Prot- 
estants, or English patriots, clench their fists, 
only too certain of persecutions and treason in 
the future. 

The Nationalists will be the heads of the new 
Dublin Government. What do they undertake 
to do? Can their promises be relied on? In 
April, 1912, Mr. Dillon, quite mild all of a sud- 
den, said: 

"For my part, as long as I live in Irish poli- 
tics, I will adhere honorably to that pledge and 
will do everything in my power to discounte- 
nance any idea that we intend to use this Bill 
as a leverage to extract more out of England, 
or that we are not content to accept the position 



APPROACH OF THE CRISIS, 1906-16 143 

which is the basis upon which this Bill is 
founded." * 

In 1911 Mr. Redmond asks for an Irish Parlia- 
ment to deal with purely Irish affairs, "subject 
to the supremacy of the Imperial Parliament." 
If the Nationalists are sincere, remind them that 
Gladstone himself confessed that he was in- 
capable of distinguishing between Imperial and 
non-Imperial matters. 

But the Unionists do not believe in this sin- 
cerity. They call to mind other declarations, 
more brutal, more outspoken, uttered when it 
was not necessary to tread warily, to lull suspi- 
cion ; for instance, Mr. Redmond's speech at Kan- 
turk on November 17, 1895 : 

"Ireland for the Irish is our motto, and the 
consummation of all our hopes and aspirations 
is, in one word, to drive English rule, sooner or 
later, bag and baggage from the country." 

Again, in 1893, in the House of Commons, he 
said that there was no hope of success if the 
decisions of the Irish Legislature were to be 
submitted to the Imperial Parliament as a Court 
of Appeal, either directly or indirectly. 

Thus spoke the chief; now let us listen to his 
lieutenants. This time it is Mr. Kettle, an hon- 

1 Speech to the University of Dublin, April, 1912. 



144: IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

est man, the leading economist of the party, a 
scholar rather than politician, reassuring his 
American friends : "These are our tactics — if you 
want to capture a fortress, first take the outer 
works." 

And now we have Mr. Devlin, President of 
the great secret society, "The Ancient Order of 
Hibernians," possibly the most powerful man in 
Ireland, speaking at Philadelphia. "I believe in 
the separation of Ireland from England — until 
Ireland is as free as the air we breathe." 

Finally Dillon, the unruly member of the 
party. His friends have often reproached him 
for talking too much, and with good cause; 
confessions like this are certainly very embar- 
rassing to-day : 

"I strongly advise the Irish people to provide 
themselves with arms," he said in effect in the 
House of Commons. "The Irish people have not 
the necessary means to carry on civil war. I 
wish that they had. In old days when a more 
efficacious weapon was used, one or two land- 
lords were chosen out, fired at with a rifle, and 
that had better results than all your constitu- 
tional agitation." 

In the same House in 1898 he pinned down his 
leader : 



APPROACH OF THE CRISIS, 1906-16 145 

Mr. Dillon: "You spoke of the repeal of the 
Union, and the reopening of the Irish Parlia- 
ment, as the full Nationalist demand. Now, I 
say, in the first instance, that, in my opinion and 
in the opinion of the vast majority of the ad- 
vanced Nationalists of Ireland, that is not the 
full Nationalist demand." 

Mr. Redmond: "Separation." 

Mr. Dillon: "Yes. That is the full Nation- 
alist demand ; that is the right on which we stand, 
the Nationalist right of Ireland." * 

A member reminded him in June, 1912, of an- 
other of his vows : 

"When we come out of the struggle we will 
remember who were the people's friends and who 
were the people's enemies, and we will mete out 
our reward to the one and our punishment to 
the other." 2 

It is not very reassuring for Ulster! 

Such is the man who in 1912 gave "honorable" 
pledges, who in 1918 was elected leader of the 
Parliamentary Nationalist party. 

In July, 1912, Irish Freedom wrote: 

"Above all, in the transitory and half-way 
house stage, it will keep a sharp eye on 'Sister 
England's' administration of the Home Rule Bill 
and it will devote its special attention to the 

1 House of Commons, February 11th, 1898, 

a Mr. Joynson-Hicks, House of Commons, June 11th, 1912. 



146 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

using of that Bill as a means to strengthen Ire- 
land and weaken the British Empire, in so far 
as it can be worked towards that end." 

That can hardly be described as legitimate 
self-defense, can it? 

This Fenian newspaper is merely playing the 
part one expects of it. But the contradictions 
of a man of Mr. Redmond's standing are more 
disturbing. In October, 1911, speaking at Man- 
chester, he said: "We are not asking for the re- 
peal of the Union, but merely for an amendment 
of its terms." 

That is all very well. He was speaking before 
English people. "Why, then, was he so impru- 
dent as to sign this in his Freeman's Journal, 
December 16th, 1908?— "We have before us to- 
day the best chance which Ireland has ever had 
of tearing up and trampling under foot that in- 
famous Act of Union." 

Which are we to believe? 

We might fill volumes with threatening quo- 
tations such as these; they would at least make 
us appreciate why English Unionists distrust 
these wolves suddenly camouflaged as sheep. 
Then there is past history, seven centuries of 
hatred ! no light matter. Then there is that mor- 
bid spite which is no longer justified, which the 
English neither understand nor share, but with 



APPROACH OF THE CRISIS, 1906-16 147 

which they are obliged to reckon every moment; 
a perpetual insult — worse, vows of unappeasable 
revenge. Can we reproach them for being on 
their guard? 



CHAPTER VI 

THE PRICE OF A BARGAIN 

In this traffic between Radicals and Nationalists 
there was a victim. Was it the Empire? No; 
that is big enough to lose a bit of territory and 
to defend itself when necessary. Was it Eng- 
land? No; the English voter, gagged until the 
next election, that is to say till 1916, had no one 
to blame but himself for not having foreseen the 
turn events would take, and had only to take it 
as became a sportsman. But what of Ulster? 
There it was no more a matter of the interplay of 
parties, of skillful Parliamentary combinations; 
it was a matter of life and death, of a race to 
be given over to reprisals, sworn on a hundred 
occasions, to be subject to a rival whom she not 
only execrates, but despises, and she gives you 
very good reasons for it. Sold by English dema- 
gogues to their Irish fellows, Ulster hung out a 
signal of distress, and armed for resistance. 
Some rights are more sacred than laws. 

From July, 1912, there had been bloody colli- 
sions between Roman Catholic and Protestant 

148 



THE PRICE OF A BARGAIN 149 

workmen at Belfast, and on one occasion at a 
big football match there were a hundred 
wounded on the field. But the movement was 
soon to outstrip these local fights and take on 
other proportions, to become truly national — for 
Ulster is a nation — and imperial, for the Empire 
cannot look on calmly while her best sons are 
put up for auction. 

A man arose to give effect to these two warn- 
ings, one of the leaders of the English Bar, en- 
dowed both with an iron will and with some of 
the best brains in the kingdom — Sir Edward 
Carson. He had become the spokesman of 
Ulster ; in the cottages of Catholic Ireland he is 
suspected of being anti-Christ, and he is never 
mentioned without the sign of the Cross or an 
oath. His adversaries have never denied that his 
straightforwardness is perfect, but his inexor- 
able logic annoys them exceedingly. Few lead- 
ers have been more hated by their enemies and 
none has served a cause with more firmness, 
courage, and good sense. 

Carson began his campaign by a series of 
great public meetings, big processions with 
bands and banners, Orange demonstrations, etc. 
All the Unionists of the district marched in 
them, big manufacturers, ordinary workmen, 
landowners, and farmers. The Ulster question 
was opened. 



150 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

What does it consist of? We have seen whence 
came the Presbyterian population of the north- 
east of Ireland, drawn from Scotland and 
planted by James I. I have summarized its prin- 
cipal conflicts and vicissitudes, racial and re- 
ligious hatred. 

It is important not to confuse it with the 
other section of Irish Unionists which is of Eng- 
lish descent, from the nobility, from officials, 
and from the soldier-farmers of Cromwell's day. 
This latter party has kept from its origin the re- 
ligion which was for a long time the only one 
permitted to courtiers — Anglican Episcopalian- 
ism ; the King's Court were compelled to belong 
to the official Church called in the three king- 
doms, Church of England, Church of Scotland, 
Church of Ireland. Although scattered about 
the island at the caprice of conquests and royal 
favors, they are called Southern Unionists, in 
order to distinguish them from Ulster Unionists. 
They are hardly less important politically and 
socially, for they comprise hereditary powers, 
the majority of the nobility and Anglo-Irish 
aristocracy; but they are less numerous and 
more widely dispersed, and in a certain quarter 
they are treated as a negligible quantity from 
.a systematic contempt for heredity. Their influ- 
ence has, moreover, decreased considerably since 
they gave up their property to the natives. 



THE PKICE OF A BARGAIN 151 

Ulster is composed otherwise; she forms a 
complete nation comprising all classes of so- 
ciety, She is practically the only part of Ire- 
land which can seriously be called industrial. 
Her capital, Belfast, the largest town in the 
island, has a population of 400,000, nearly 
100,000 more than Dublin; her celebrated spe- 
cialties are her linen trade and shipbuilding. 

We are now touching upon another point in 
the great question of Ulster, upon an element 
which we have so far subordinated to the claims 
of race and religion, but which the nineteenth 
century, as elsewhere, has changed into a pre- 
ponderant element — the economic question. 
Leaving the Southern Celts to moan and whine 
with tub-thumpers and agitators, to curse Eng- 
land while at the same time begging for help 
from her, to vex the landlords and invoke the 
State as Providence, Ulster has contrived to 
grow prosperous, more prosperous than the 
whole of the rest of the island put together — 
and that, too, we cannot repeat too often, under 
the same political fiscal and customs regime 
which her unproductive fellow-countrymen 
abuse at every turn. 

Ulster is the gem of Ireland. Without her 
the financial stability of the new State would 
be impossible ; unfortunately, to the great indig- 
nation of the Nationalists, she declines to be 



152 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

part of it at any price! She refuses to be the 
milch-cow of hostile politicians, whose methods, 
bias, program, and incompetence are alike 
odious to her. She has known them for so long 
and at such close quarters that her fears prob- 
ably have some foundation. She reasons as a 
business man or as a banker, who does not 
neglect his guarantees for the finest promises 
in the world. The Nationalists promise her 
every sort of toleration and security. She will 
have none of it. 

"We have come into Ireland," said a Deputa- 
tion from the Belfast Chamber of Commerce 
which waited on Mr. Gladstone in the spring 
of 1S93, "and not the richest portion of the island, 
and have gradually built up an industry and 
commerce with which we are able to hold our 
own in competition with the most progressive 
nations in the world. Our success has been 
achieved under a system and a polity in which 
we believe. Its non-interference with the busi- 
ness of the people gave play to that self-reliance 
with which we strove to emulate the industrial 
qualities of the people of Great Britain. It is 
now proposed to place the manufactures and 
commerce of the country at the mercy of a ma- 
jority which will have no real concern in the 
interests vitally affected, and who have no 
knowledge of the science of government. The 
mere shadow of these changes has so depressed 
the stocks which represent the accumulations 



THE PEICE OF A BAKGAUST 153 

of our past enterprise and labor that we are al- 
ready commercially poorer than we were." 

The Protestant workingmen in Ulster think 
likewise; they appear in force at every demon- 
stration by the side of their masters. 

The Nationalists covet greedily this fine spoil 
from which the best part of their finances would 
be drawn. It would be easy to squeeze her, since 
numerically this rich corner would only be de- 
fended in the Irish Parliament by one-quarter of 
the total number of members. That is exactly 
why these obstinate Scots will not undertake the 
adventure! Ulster has not the smallest doubt 
on the subject; she knows what lies in store for 
her. Let us glance at the words of one of her 
most moderate spokesmen, Lord Ernest Hamil- 
ton; I summarize his clear and precise reason- 



"The Protestant attitude is often stigmatized 
as being uncompromising. It is uncompromis- 
ing. . . . The fundamental idea at the back of 
the Ulsterman's attitude is that what has once 
happened may well happen again. [He has just 
described all the massacres of the eighteenth and 
seventeenth centuries.] . . . Such occurrences 
invariably take the form of systematic attempts 
to rid the country of the British element by any 

1 The Soul of Ulster, by Lord Ernest Hamilton, pp. 107-39 
passim. 



154 IRELAND—AN ENEMY? 

and every means. . . . The soul of the native 
Irish has not at the present day changed by the 
width of a hair from what it was in 1641 and 
again in 1798. . . . 

"The only attraction of Home Rale to the in- 
ner soul of the Irish (especially in Ulster) is the 
hope that it will provide the machinery by which 
the British colonist can be got rid of and Irish 
soil revert once more to the Irish. . . . 

"In Ulster, then, the cry of 'Ireland for the 
Irish' is not the mere innocent expression of a 
laudable patriotism; it has a deeper and far 
more sinister meaning. It means the expulsion 
from Ireland of the Protestant colonists, and 
is so understood clearly by both sections of the 
population. There are no sentimental illusions 
in Ulster, whatever there may be in England. 

"Among the Irish of the South and West the 
popular conception of Ireland under Home Rule 
may be said to be, and in fact is, nebulous. The 
aspirations of the peasant, when reduced by per- 
suasive inquiry to concrete form, will generally 
be found to stop short at a kind of Pan-Celtic 
Arcadia, where all will be rich on a minimum 
of work and a maximum of whisky supplied by 
American millionaires. . . . 

"In Ulster, however, a very different spirit 
broods over the land. . . . Half the lands of Ul- 
ster, and these the best and the richest, are in 
the hands of the stranger within the gates. It 
matters nothing that the lands when originally 
granted were waste, and that the industry of 
the colonists has made them rich. . . . The na- 
tives know none of these things; they are not 



THE PRICE OF A BARGAIN 155 

politically educated on these lines. . . . And so 
they cry, or, rather, they mutter under their 
breath, 'Ireland for the Irish/ a cry which be- 
comes freely translated into 'to hell or to the 
sea with every bloody Protestant/ . . . Two 
prima facie questions arise : 

(1) "Are the aspirations of the native Irish 
for a restitution of their forfeited lands justi- 
fied? 

(2) "Would Home Rule give practical expres- 
sion to such aspirations? 

"The first question obviously opens up prob- 
lems which reach far beyond the case of Ulster. 
It touches, more or less, the whole civilized 
world. Should England be evacuated in favor 
of the Welsh, the relics of the ancient Britons? 
Canada in favor of the Red Indians? New 
Zealand in favor of the Maoris? Should the 
French clear out of Algiers, the British out of 
Uganda, the Spanish out of the Argentine? 

"The second question at once raises more prac- 
tical issues than the first. Would Home Rule 
result in attempts to dispossess the. Protestant 
settlers of their footing in Ireland, and if so, 
how? The first part of the question can be 
shortly disposed of. The attempt would be 
made; it has been made on every occasion in the 
history of Ireland on which the native element 
has been in the ascendancy, and it would be 
made again. . . . 

"The attempt would not be made by methods 
of open violence, but by more characteristic 
methods of which the more conspicuous would 
be as follows : 



156 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

(1) "Petty injustices and persecutions which 
may be further subdivided as follows : 

(a) Taking the Parliamentary represen- 
tation ; 

(b) Establishing native officials in every 
executive and remunerative post in the 
country. 

(2) "Agrarian outrages. 

(3) "Tammany methods (shameless political 
corruption, blackmail, intimidation, violence, by 
which the Irish once made the Municipal Cor- 
poration of New York notorious). 

"Such have been the native methods from time 
immemorial. . . . They are the fighting meth- 
ods of the race, to which the fear of conviction 
and punishment have always been the only de- 
terrent; and under Home Rule neither convic- 
tions nor punishment would follow. Magis- 
trates, constables, judge and jury, would be on 
the side of the perpetrators." 

This is Ulster's idea of Home Rule, and we 
agree that the picture is not an attractive one. 
It is easy to laugh at it and describe it as fan- 
ciful, but history — and that is why I have made 
a point of reminding you of it briefly — history of 
the past and of the present does not gainsay 
them. 

Ulster is quite happy in her Union with Great 
Britain; she has the most profound reasons for 
dreading separation and the yoke which will be 
imposed upon her. By what right is it to be 



THE PRICE OF A BARGAIN 157 

imposed? There is only one pretext, the "unity 
of Irish nationality; Ulster is an integral part 
of Ireland." Nothing more fatuous can be con- 
ceived. It is the logic of more than one nation- 
alism, lucubrations emanating from the brain 
of three or four professors, poets, ethnologists, 
geographers, and so on, which end by creating 
in masses which are perfectly amorphous and 
apathetic an "irresistible movement," with the 
help of priests, lawyers, and school-teachers. 
German science and intrigue have produced not 
a few of these brilliant fabrications. 

The case of Ulster is by far the most artificial 
example, and those who cannot see it must be 
shutting their eyes to facts. Moreover, the Na- 
tionalists betray their confusion on the subject, 
and alas ! also their bad faith. They do not even 
try to reason; they assert, they threaten. As 
they are masters of the Parliamentary majority 
at Westminster, they are content to give orders 
without mincing matters. 

Mr. Dillon said: "The thing the Protestants 
of Ulster cannot bear to accept is equality with 
their fellow-countrymen," 1 or again : "The peo- 
ple of Ulster will have to come down from that 
proud eminence, bow their lofty crests, and ac- 
cept equality with their fellow-countrymen." 2 

Speech at Carlisle, June, 1912. 
'Speech at Barnsley, May, 1912. 



158 IKELAND— AN ENEMY? 

In plain English that means that Ulster must 
submit to being strangled in the Dublin Parlia- 
ment by three votes to one. 

Ireland does not form one nation, replies the 
Unionist, but two nations sharply divided by 
race, religion, and politics. There are no rea- 
sons justifying a Nationalist Parliament at Dub- 
lin which do not similarly justify a Unionist 
Parliament at Belfast. Ulster does not even 
want that; she simply asks to stay united to 
Great Britain and be ruled by the Government 
in London. Why should she not have the right 
to remain as she is? 

What reply can be given to the following con- 
clusions of the late Duke of Devonshire? 

"The people of Ulster believe, rightly or 
wrongly, that under a Government responsible 
to an Imperial Parliament they possess at pres- 
ent the fullest security which they can possess 
of their personal freedom, their liberties, and 
their right to transact their own business in 
their own way. You have no right to offer them 
any inferior security to that ; and if, after weigh- 
ing the character of the Government which it is 
sought to impose on them, they resolve that they 
are no longer bound to obey a law which does 
not give them equal and just protection with 
their fellow-subjects, who can say — how, at all 
events, can the descendants of those who resisted 
King James II say — that they have not a right, 



THE PKICE OF A BAKGAIN 159 

if they think fit to resist, if they think they have 
the power, the imposition of a Government put 
upon them by force ?" 1 

This is what Ulster is compelled to do to her 
great regret, and the Conservative party, the old 
defender of established order and of the Consti- 
tution, agrees with her and promises her sup- 
port. On September 28th, 1912, Sir Edward 
Carson appealed to all his partisans, and 218,000 
men signed a solemn covenant at Belfast not to 
recognize the authority of a Dublin Parliament. 
A covenant is a religious vow and not a catch- 
word for electioneering advertisement. Those 
who know the dour resoluteness of the Scottish 
character, without exaggeration and without 
vain boasting, realize that the vow will be kept 
and that nothing will bend them. Those forces 
are not easily stirred, but woe to those who 
resist them! 

Carson began to raise an army of volunteers, 
and imported arms, rifles, bayonets, and muni- 
tions; in all the villages of eastern Ulster, 
workingmen were practicing drill and rifle- 
shooting with enthusiasm. Mr. Asquith and his 
Kadicals, who began by laughing at the whole 
thing, soon discovered that the time for speeches 

1 The Life of Spencer Compton, eighth Duke of Devonshire, 
by Bernard Holland, C.B., vol. ii., p. 250. 



160 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

and shifts had passed. There was hesitation in 
the ranks. Anaesthesia was tried, the invalid 
was to be put to sleep. Lord Loreburn, the Lord 
Chancellor, suggested a conference for concilia- 
tion. Mr. Churchill mentioned possible amend- 
ments, and promised Imperial Federation, Home 
Rule for everybody, believing that the word "Im- 
perial" would seduce the Ulster patriots. Sir 
Edward Grey suggested autonomy for Ulster 
within autonomy for Ireland. 

It was too late for all these palliatives ; Ulster 
had no longer any confidence in this political 
jugglery. Carson refused a conference which 
could lead to nothing (events proved that he was 
in the right), and appointed Lieutenant-General 
Sir George Richardson Commander-in-Chief of 
the Ulster Volunteers; he reviewed 100,000 men 
outside Belfast. 

Finally, in September, 1913, the Unionist 
Council of Ulster adopted a distinct Constitu- 
tion of Provisory Government in preparation for 
the day when Home Rule would become law. 
A large sum was raised by a subscription to in- 
demnify the victims of the approaching struggle, 
the disabled, widows and orphans. In England 
a committee prepared an organization to receive 
refugees from Ulster, who would have to flee be- 
fore the horrors of civil war — the organization 
was so thorough that a few months later Lady 



THE PEICE OF A BARGAIN 161 

Lugard offered it to the Government for the Bel- 
gian refugees, and for a long time it was their 
principal refuge. 

Everything was therefore ready for the fray, 
and to such a pitch that on March 1st, 1914, it 
was announced that the ranks of the Ulster 
Army, consisting of 111,000 volunteers, were full 
and that no further recruits were to be enrolled. 
English public opinion was profoundly stirred, 
and Liberal orators felt very conscious that their 
audiences did not approve of them. It might 
have been possible to defend a measure of gen- 
erosity towards Nationalist Ireland, but it was 
contrary to John Bull's idea of common sense 
to sacrifice to this defiant, hostile rebel a vast 
population which was perfectly loyal and 
friendly. Therefore Mr. Asquith, though refus- 
ing to solve the question by a general election 
or a plebiscite, consented to offer the following 
concession on March 8th. 

As some counties in Ulster, namely those in 
the west, were not Unionist, it would not be 
just to treat the province as a homogeneous 
whole; that agreed upon, each of the Ulster 
counties might, by a vote with a bare majority, 
decide whether it wanted to be under London 
or Dublin. This was a tempting proposal with 
which every one would have agreed . . . but it 
was to be a beautiful dream without the reality. 



162 IKELAND— AN ENEMY? 

At the end of six years every one was to fall 
into line, and the refractory counties were to be 
compelled to revert automatically under the law 
of the Dublin Parliament. By the same amend- 
ment the right of Protestant Ulster to decide her 
fate was recognized, and yet after a short inter- 
val it was to be taken from her! 

In the name of his fellow-citizens Sir Edward 
Carson refused this sentence of death of which 
the execution was postponed for six years, and 
afterwards stated his final conditions; he ac- 
cepted the proposed geographical division, 
though it was a bad dissection, for there are 
many Protestants in the counties which would 
pass under the Nationalist thumb, and many 
Catholics in the others. But if he submitted to 
the democratic injustices of the bare majority, 
he insisted that at least this minimum of equity 
should be durable and definite, and not re- 
vocable. 

This declaration will be historic, for it is prob- 
able that any future solution of the Irish im- 
broglio will have to take it into account. Na- 
tionalists and Liberals, dismayed at seeing their 
plans upset by this resistance, moaned daily 
"Ulster is unreasonable," and reproached Carson 
for his extreme intransigeance. They forgot 
that he was master of the situation, and might 
exact much more at a time when the Govern- 



THE PRICE OF A BARGAIN 163 

ment was changing its tune, hesitating, and offer- 
ing a compromise. Was he not meeting them 
half-way when he accepted the stupid verdict of 
the bare majority in questions of independence 
and of national existence? Is there another 
Constitution in Europe which would be satisfied 
with it? 

However that may be, Carson's reply was 
very badly received. Mr. Redmond and Mr. 
Churchill, the great military strategist of the 
Liberal party — oh, shade of an illustrious ances- 
tor! — called to arms, to the great dismay of Mr. 
Asquith and the old Gladstonians, who are not 
bellicose. Did they expect Ulster to retreat? 
Sir Edward Carson immediately took up the 
challenge, and on March 19th, after the Com- 
mons had voted against his final recourse to a 
referendum, he solemnly left the House amid the 
applause of his party, announcing that he was 
going to Belfast to put himself at the head of 
his friends and await events. 

The days which followed were stormy ones. 
The day after Sir Edward's departure, orders 
were received at the Curragh for troops to hold 
themselves in readiness to march on Ulster. The 
Secretary of State authorized the officers to leave 
the army if they did not wish to take part in 
the expedition ; a hundred of them resigned their 
commissions. 



164 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

The Government, angrily questioned in the 
House, vowed that it had only wished to take 
the simplest precautions to protect public build- 
ings. The Secretary of State for War ordered 
those officers who had resigned to rejoin their 
regiments, and General Gough, commanding at 
the Curragh, returned from conferring with his 
chiefs in London and announced that he had a 
promise in writing not to have to send the 
cavalry brigade to Ulster. Instantly the Radi- 
cals protested against the "military camarilla" 
and forced Mr. Asquith to repudiate the promise 
given by the Secretary of State for War, Colonel 
Seely, and countersigned by General French, 
Chief of the Staff, and General Ewart, his chief 
staff officer. In short, there were contradic- 
tions, misunderstandings, and muddles, followed 
by the resignations of Seely, French and Ewart, 
etc. On his side Mr. Churchill, the First Lord 
of the Admiralty, as ever on the lookout for mar- 
tial glory, raised another storm by sending a 
cruiser squadron to Belfast. 

All this precipitated the change in public 
opinion already noted above; and Mr. Asquith, 
the subtlest orator in England, again adopted 
a conciliatory tone, protested that the fears of 
Ulster were vain, that before six years had 
passed a vast system of Federation would extend 
over the whole Empire and would ensure every 



THE PRICE OF A BARGAIN 165 



guarantee to Ulster, etc. Sir Edward Carson, 
coldly skeptical, was not convinced, and spurned 
the proposal. His view amounted to this : 

"It is not we who ask to make any change. 
Do not include us in Home Rule, let the Na- 
tionalists make their experiments in practical 
government without us. If they do well, if they 
dissipate our fears and reassure us, they will 
win us by persuasion, as I wish with all my 
heart that they may do. When we have seen 
them at work, if they keep their fine promises 
of wisdom, toleration, social and economic 
progress, loyalty and good-will towards our 
mother country, we shall be happy to cooperate 
with them. But not before. We know only too 
well on what our suspicions are founded!" 

Mr. Asquith gave it up; bullied by his credi- 
tors the Nationalists, he stuck to his original 
scheme, his amendment, and the six-years' 
clause. The House of Lords, on the other hand, 
making use of what little initiative remained to 
it, adopted a motion of Lord Lansdowne's to 
exclude the whole of Ulster, including the west- 
ern counties. This scheme was no more justifi- 
able than the Nationalist claim to the Unionist 
counties; Lord Lansdowne has never shown 
much sagacity with regard to Irish problems. 

The new conflict between the two Houses of 
Parliament marks the culminating point of the 



166 IKELAND— AN ENEMY? 

crisis, and it was hard to see how the Govern- 
ment could avoid resorting to force. But to 
what force? The regular army had failed; the 
only alternative was the army of National Vol- 
unteers which had just been started in Dublin, 
modeled upon their rivals in Belfast, with the 
official approval of Mr. Kedmond and his lieu- 
tenants. 

In face of imminent civil war King George 
made a final attempt at pacification, and sum- 
moned to Buckingham Palace eight leaders of 
the English and Irish parties. Unfortunately, 
on July 24th, 1914, the Conference broke down 
on the question of the delimitation of the coun- 
ties which were to be excluded. 

At that moment other clouds were banking up 
on the European horizon, and grave questions 
brought about a truce in this intestine quarrel. 
The diplomatic tension of the end of July, grow- 
ing apprehension, dread of the gigantic drama 
which was to be performed, finally the enthusi- 
asm of August, the unanimous rising of the 
whole British nation for the defense of the weak 
and for Eight, all made the Irish squabbles and 
the servile maneuvres of the Kadical Cabinet 
appear infinitely paltry in comparison. 

At Westminster, as at the Palais Bourbon, the 
hour was poignant, vows were sublime, union 
was to be sacred. There was to be an end of 



TEE PRICE OF A BARGAIN 167 

spite, intrigue, individual or national selfishness. 
Carson told Ms volunteers at once to go and fight 
in Belgium, and Redmond himself recognized 
with true nobility that our cause was just and 
must take precedence of his. A united front was 
presented to the barbarous enemy, and very fine 
it was. 

Alas! democracies have their organic vices, 
and the truce did not last long ; we shall see that 
the Irish policy of the Asquith Ministry had a 
sad epilogue. 



CHAPTER VII 

IRELAND DURING THE WAR 

The English Parliament, faithful to its resolu- 
tions, gave for six weeks a fine example of con- 
cord and moderation; the victory of the Marne 
was a consolation to all, and every one had for- 
gotten political chicanery, when all of a sudden 
Mr. Asquith made a most unexpected move. 
Thinking that his adversaries were distracted by 
their patriotic emotions and the grave preoccu- 
pations of the world-struggle, the Prime Min- 
ister thought fit to profit by it to steal a march 
on them. 

The amendments proposed by Mr. Asquith to 
appease Ulster had satisfied no one, but when 
war broke out the House of Lords was still ex- 
amining them and trying to correct them by 
counter-proposals. Whatever might be the out- 
come of any of them, one fact stood out as a 
result of this long struggle between the two 
Houses: the Government had recognized the ne- 
cessity of giving Ulster a certain measure of 
satisfaction. So long as this measure was insuni- 

168 



IRELAND DURING THE WAR 169 

cient or indefinite, Ulster had remained on guard 
— until August 4th, 1914 ; since then on the con- 
trary her patriotic self-denial had disarmed her. 

On September 14th the Prime Minister an- 
nounced that the Government was going to 
present the Home Rule Act for the Royal sig- 
nature without amendments, but would not put 
it into force until after the war. As for the 
amendments, he promised, but without specify- 
ing them, that he would introduce them in a 
separate Bill during the following session. You 
can imagine how indignant the Unionists were 
at this bombshell. In a word, Home Rule became 
law, and instead of amendments there was noth- 
ing but promises! And what promises? Mr. 
Asquith began by breaking his pledges of March 
9th and the express conditions of the party 
truce concluded at the outbreak of war. 1 The 
Times wrote that "once again Mr. Redmond had 
compelled our Ministers to toe the line." 

Sir Edward Carson that same evening issued 
his manifesto "to the loyalists of Ulster" : 

"By an act of unparalleled treachery and be- 
trayal the Radical Government, at the dictation 
of their Nationalist allies, have announced their 
intention of passing into law, without discussing 
the Amending Bill which they themselves intro- 

1 Speech by Mr. Bonar Law, September 15th, 1914. 



170 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

duced, the detestable Home Rule Bill, which we 
are pledged to resist at all costs. They are tak- 
ing advantage of the situation created by the 
war, which threatens the very existence of the 
United Kingdom and the Empire, to inflict upon 
us this degradation and humiliation. The Gov- 
ernment have thought it an opportune moment, 
when a great number of members of Parliament 
are serving their country and so many of our 
own people have nobly responded to Lord 
Kitchener's appeal, and when, therefore, we 
could not enter upon resistance without injur- 
ing and weakening our country, to seek a party 
triumph without any regard to national inter- 
ests. The infamy of such a proceeding will, I 
know, sink deeply into the heart of every loyal 
and patriotic man, and will, I am sure, act as a 
stimulus to the fight to the finish which we have 
covenanted to carry out. 

"But I ask my followers in Ulster to remem- 
ber that this is not the action of the nation, but 
of a despicable political faction, and our duty 
at the present moment is towards our country 
and the Empire. 'Our country first' is and al- 
ways has been our motto. We must, therefore, 
notwithstanding this indignity, go on with our 
preparations to assist our country, and strain 
every nerve to defeat its enemies. 

"But you may rest assured that we shall not 
slacken for a moment our efforts to be prepared, 
when our country is out of danger, to carry out 
our covenant to the end. I once more promise 
to go straight on with you in the fight, strength- 
ened by the belief that Great Britain will never 



IRELAND DURING THE WAR 171 

forgive the base treachery of the Government. 
"We will not have Home Rule — Never. 

"Edward Carson." 

September 15th, 1914. 

Comment seems superfluous. For want of 
anything better we will recall some of the prom- 
ises made during the debate on September 15th, 
and first of all we will quote Mr. Asquith: 

"The employment of force, any kind of force, 
for what you call the coercion of Ulster is an 
absolutely unthinkable thing." 

Then Mr. Bonar Law, leader of the Unionists : 

"They said to themselves, 'Whatever we may 
do, they are bound in a crisis like this to help 
their country. Whatever injustice we inflict 
upon them we can count upon them.' It is not 
a pretty calculation, but I would like to say, with 
the whole authority of our party, that it is a 
correct calculation — they can count on us." 

Finally, Mr. Redmond spoke in the name of 
Ms Irishmen: 

"This moratorium which the Government pro- 
pose is a reasonable one. . . . There are two 
things that I care most about in this world of 
politics. The first is that the system of auton- 
omy which is to be extended to Ireland shall be 
extended to the whole country, and that not a 
single sod of Irish soil and not a single citizen 
of the Irish nation shall be excluded from its 
operation. Let me say . . . that the second 



172 IRELAND—AN ENEMY? 

thing that I most earnestly desire is that no co- 
ercion shall be applied to any single county in 
Ireland to force them against their will to come 
into the Irish Government. . . . Catholic Na- 
tionalist Irishmen and Protestant Unionist 
Irishmen from the North of Ireland will be fight- 
ing side by side on the battlefields of the Con- 
tinent, and shedding their blood side by side. 
. . . The result of all that must inevitably be 
to assuage bitterness and to mollify the hatred 
and misunderstanding which have kept them 
apart, and I do not think I am too sanguine when 
I express my belief that ... we may have been 
able by this process in Ireland to come to an 
agreement amongst ourselves whereby we can 
suggest to the Government an Amending Bill 
which they can easily accept and ratify. ... In 
my opinion it will be the highest duty of every 
Irish Nationalist . . . during that interval to 
cultivate sedulously the spirit of conciliation, to 
suppress the voice of faction, sectarian strife and 
hatred, and to unite, as I hope we will be able to 
unite, all the sons of Ireland in the great task 
which this war imposes upon our nation. . . . 
In the past the Irish people have furnished a 
larger quota by far, in proportion to their pop- 
ulation, than the people of England or Scot- 
land. . . . What, I ask you, will be the record 
now that the sentiment of the whole Irish people 
undoubtedly is with you in this war? 

"For the first time — certainly for over one 
hundred years — Ireland in this war feels her in- 
terests are precisely the same as yours. She 
feels, she will feel, that the British democracy 



IRELAND DURING THE WAR 173 

has kept faith with her. She knows that this is 
a just war. She knows, she is moved in a very 
special way by the fact that this war is under- 
taken in the defense of small nations and op- 
pressed peoples. . . . The manhood of Ireland 
will spring to your aid in this war. ... I do not 
think it is an exaggeration to say that on hun- 
dreds of platforms in this country during the last 
few years I have publicly promised, not only for 
myself, but in the name of my country, that when 
the rights of Ireland were admitted by the de- 
mocracy of England, then Ireland would become 
the strongest arm in the defense of the Empire. 
The test has come sooner than I or any one ex- 
pected. I tell the Prime Minister that that test 
Will be honorably met. ... I would feel myself 
personally dishonored if I did not say to my 
fellow-countrymen that it is their duty, and 
should be their honor, to take their place in the 
firing line in this contest. . . . 

"Just as Botha and Smuts have been able to 
say that the concession of free institutions to 
South Africa has changed the men who but ten 
or a little more years ago were your bitter ene- 
mies in the field into your loyal comrades and 
fellow-citizens in the Empire, just as truthfully 
can I say to you that by what of recent years has 
happened in this country with the democracy of 
England, Ireland has been transformed from 
what George Meredith described a short time 
ago as 'the broken arm of England' into one ot 
the strongest bulwarks of the Empire." 1 

1 House of Commons, September 15th, 1914. 



174 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

Thus spoke the leader, and he spoke well. I 
have thought fit to quote his speech fully, for it 
is so fine that one would like to see in it the act 
of faith of a nation. Mr. Redmond had just 
made similar promises to Cardinal Mercier, who 
passed through London on his return from the 
Conclave: "We shall avenge Belgium!" I be- 
lieved in it, just as others did, and so firmly that 
although I had made up my mind to write this 
book for three years, I kept putting it off, hop- 
ing to the end that Ireland would not go back 
on the signature of her proxy. Not a voice was 
raised from the Irish benches to repudiate Mr. 
Redmond, not even Mr. Dillon's. 

Yet, even from that day, a paragraph in Mr. 
Redmond's speech ought to have given a warn- 



"The Times in an article to-day, says : 'A Na- 
tionalist Ireland still disowns her gallant sol- 
diers, flaunts placards against enlistment, and 
preaches sedition in her newspapers.' 

"That is a cruel libel on Ireland. The men 
who ure circulating hand-bills against enlist- 
ment, and the men who are publishing little 
wretched rags once a week or once a month — i 
which none of us ever see — who are sending them 
by some mysterious agency through the post in 
this country and day by day to members — these 
are the little group of men who never belonged 
to the National Constitutional party at all, but 



IRELAND DURING THE WAR 175 

who have been all through, and are to-day, our 
bitterest enemies. If you take up these wretched 
rags you will find praises of the Emperor of 
Germany in the same sentence as are denuncia- 
tions of my colleagues and myself." 1 

Then the disloyal were merely exceptions? 
Very well, that may have been so, but then why 
are they to-day the favorites of Irish opinion? 
Mr. Redmond has died recently, mortified by the 
default of his people who did not keep the prom- 
ises he made on their behalf. What followed? 
His successor, Mr. Dillon, has thrown off the 
mask which impeded him, and has joined the 
men who are publishing little "wretched rags." 

At the end of September Mr. Asquith, accom- 
panied by Mr. Redmond, had a great welcome 
in Dublin, and Mr. Redmond repeated his call 
to arms. 

"Her right to autonomy has been conceded by 
the democracy of Great Britain, and therefore 
Ireland will feel bound in honor to take her place 
side by side with all the other autonomous por- 
tions of the King's dominions in upholding her 
interests. " 

This time Mr. Dillon and Mr. Devlin on the 
same platform announced their complete agree- 
ment. A few days later Sir Edward Carson 

1 House of Commons, September 15th, 1914. 



176 IKELAND— AN ENEMY? 

and Mr. Bonar Law spoke at Belfast in their 
turn : "Drop politics for the moment and serve 
your country." 

Ulster recruited well A In the rest of Ireland 
there was rather more confusion, and it is im- 
possible to say exactly what happened. It ap- 
pears from Mr. Bedmond's declaration that he 
wanted two separate things : an "Irish Brigade" 
which would go and fight on the Continent with 
Irish officers only, and perhaps if possible un- 
der the green flag with the golden harp; and a 
corps of "Irish Volunteers" for the defense of 
the island — that is to say, that under this pre- 
text the arming of the National Volunteers who 
had been recently preparing to subdue Ulster 
should be continued. Did he imagine that the 
British authorities would giye arms to equip 
what was after all a corps of partisans of doubt- 
ful integrity? 

The War Office showed no enthusiasm in en- 
couraging these two schemes according to the 
demands of the Irish. It gladly accepted re- 
cruits from Ireland on the same conditions as 
the others, to draft into the heroic Irish regi- 
ments which were already in existence ; but not 
to let them form a separate brigade, and to make 
stipulations as to where they chose to fight, etc. 
• — in short, to excite still further the old spirit 
of separatist rivalry. 



IRELAND DURING THE WAR 177 

The Nationalist leaders, seeing that their peo- 
ple did not respond to the appeal as they had 
promised, required nothing more to make them 
put all the blame for their failure on the War 
Office, and on the usual English stupidity. This 
insinuation appears for the first time in a speech 
of Mr. Redmond's at Waterford on October 11th, 
1914 : a fortnight of propaganda had sufficed to 
show him that among his fellow-countrymen 
there was an indifference and a hostility which 
augured ill. 

On October 31st, after two months of friendly 
reticence, The Times decided to lend him a hand 
and speak openly. It asked why a meek Gov- 
ernment allowed the multiplication and free dis- 
tribution in Ireland of quantities of dangerous 
and seditious leaflets, which conjured the peas- 
ant not to sell his soul for the Saxon's shilling, 
not to help England out of her cruel difficulty, 
to abstain from an English war so long as the 
Germans did not disembark on the island. . . . 
It asked why Mr. Birrell, smiling as usual, al- 
lowed so much freedom to these scribblers, while 
the censorship was so severe for English news- 
papers. It asked where the money came from 
for so costly a campaign, and finally it pointed 
out that the Irish bishops kept an ill-omened 
silence, and had not yet approved Mr. Red- 
mond's statements — prophetic remarks, whose 



178 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

deplorable accuracy the history of the following 
months will reveah Great Britain has suffered 
much from the errors, ambiguous associations, 
tergiversations, and weaknesses of those who 
governed her in 1914. Had not Mr. Asquith 
confided the censorship of the press to Sir Stan- 
ley Buckmaster, since become Lord Buckmas- 
ter, and one of the leading lights of the pacifist- 
defeatist cabal? 

There was of course a certain amount of vari- 
ation, a few fine movements along the right road, 
and some of the Nationalist leaders made praise- 
worthy efforts to spur on recruiting. But a 
slight comparison seems to me to summarize very 
well the attitude of the two great divisions of 
Ireland : by the middle of November the munici- 
pality of Dublin had sent 42 of their employees 
to the army, Belfast 439. 

About this time seditious tendencies became 
more defined. It was no longer a question of 
sly abstention, but of open sympathy for the 
enemy. The poisonous press, led by The Irish 
Volunteer, that flashy organ of the National Vol- 
unteers, preached Germany's innocence, rejoiced 
impudently over our reverses, calumnied in a 
hateful manner French, English, and Algerian 
troops, and promised that Albion's collapse 
would shortly supervene. Irish Freedom wrote 
that "when that putrid old carcass could no 



IRELAND DURING THE WAR 179 

longer move, a psean of exultation would rise 
from the Irish nation which would rend the 
skies." The Irish Volunteer wrote: 

"Do not, you Irishmen, fight for dirty little 
England." and "our only path to the glorious 
happy Ireland of our aspirations lies through 
the downfall of the British Empire." * 

Dear creatures ! It looks hopeful. But none 
of this disturbs Buckmaster nor Birrell nor the 
Viceroy Lord Aberdeen. What in the name of 
fortune would upset their equanimity? Mr. Bir- 
rell, in reply to a question in the House, even 
asserted that — 

"These publications appear to have an un- 
usually large free circulation, particularly in 
England. . . . Although I do not myself regard 
them as a danger, I am sure they are an insult to 
the sentiment of the vast majority of the Irish 
people." 2 

About this time, too, a society, which has since 
been very prominent, took over the direction of 
all this seditious agitation, the Sinn Fein Soci- 
ety. "Sinn Fein" in Gaelic means "we our- 
selves" ; in a word, it is the party which wants 
integral autonomy, and it has a very realistic 
and very practical program. Above all, Sinn 

1 House of Commons, November 25th, 1914. 

2 Ibid. 



180 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

Fein professes great contempt for the Irish Na- 
tionalist party and its Parliamentary efforts; 
it simply wants to ignore the British Parlia- 
ment, asserting that neither Mr. Redmond nor 
his eighty-four deputies, nor even the great lead- 
ers of the past, have ever achieved anything. 
It has a Constitution: 

"First : That we are a distinct nation. 

"Second: That we will not make any volun- 
tary agreement with Great Britain, until Great 
Britain keeps her own compact which she made 
by the Renunciation Act of 1783 which enacted 
'that the right claimed by the people of Ireland 
to be bound only by laws enacted by His Ma- 
jesty and the Parliament of that Kingdom is 
hereby declared to be established, and ascer- 
tained for ever, and shall, at no time hereafter, 
be questioned or questionable.' 

"Third : That we are determined to make use 
of any powers we have, or may have at any time 
in the future, to work for our own advancement 
and for the creation of the prosperous, virile, 
and independent nation." 

Then follow the methods which are to be em- 
ployed : 

The introduction of a Protective System for 
Irish Industry and Commerce (against England, 
of course). 

An Irish Consular Service. 



IRELAND DURING THE WAR 181 

An Irish Mercantile Marine, so as to dispense 
with the English. 

k The General Survey of Ireland and develop- 
ment of its mineral resources. 

An Irish National Bank and a National Stock 
Exchange. 

The creation of a National Civil Service; of- 
ficials are to be appointed by the institution of 
a common national qualifying examination and 
a local competitive examination, the latter at the 
discretion of the local oodies. Compulsory 
teaching of the Irish language, of Irish history; 
"national" ( ! ) methods of manufacture and agri- 
culture — and other specimens of progress back- 
wards. 

The non-consumption of articles paying duty 
to the British Exchequer. Withdrawal of all 
voluntary support to the British Armed Forces. 

The non-recognition of the British Parlia- 
ments as invested with constitutional or moral 
authority to legislate for Ireland. The Annual 
Assembly in Dublin of persons elected ... to 
formulate measures for the benefit of the whole 
people of Ireland. 

It is ambitious. The society started in a hum- 
ble way at the time when the Nationalist party 
was at its zenith, that party whose hegemony 
it was one day to undermine. 

Its founder is Mr. Griffith, a journalist of 



182 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

Welsh extraction, and the principal directors are 
college and university professors, young poets, 
etc. 

At first they were laughed at and treated as 
"visionaries," but it must be confessed that their 
program is practical rather than Utopian, "Stop 
begging for everything from England, let us get 
to work ourselves." They began by opening a 
bank, starting a newspaper, and asking for the 
suffrages of municipal and provincial voters. 

They dissociated themselves from the two ele- 
ments which had led the country till now, the 
clergy and the Nationalist party. "A century 
of fine speeches has given us nothing." Evi- 
dently the fine talkers, politicians by profession, 
had no love for them and returned their insults 
with interest. The clergy, more prudent, did 
not commit themselves, but waited to see which 
would win the day; but the young priests did 
not conceal their sympathy with these out-and- 
out rebels, and were present at Sinn Fein meet- 
ings; it often happened that in a parish the old 
priest was a Eedmonite and his curates enthusi- 
astic Sinn Feiners. Lastly — Sinn Fein has an- 
other ally, the group of revolutionary Socialists 
in Dublin, led by one of the most violent of 
demagogues, Jim Larkin, and delighted to find 
this help for the coming great social upheaval. 

What is the conspicuous feature in this move- 



IRELAND DURING THE WAR 183 

ment? For the last century since O'ConnelFs 
day, the official spokesman of Ireland, the elected 
representatives and the Roman Catholic priest- 
hood, have demanded under the name of Home 
Rule an autonomy subject to the supremacy of 
the Crown, promising to behave nicely and to 
ask for nothing more, to be reasonable and main- 
tain the same mutual advantages between the 
two islands, and finally never to constitute a 
military danger for England. As a guarantee 
of good faith it was always understood that the 
Imperial authorities alone would keep control 
over military matters and international rela- 
tions. And at the very moment when all this 
was granted, when, as Mr. Redmond solemnly 
asserted, her right to autonomy had been con- 
ceded by the democracy of Great Britain, and 
therefore Ireland would feel in honor bound to 
keep her promises, a new party arose which re- 
plied to Mr. Redmond: "You had no right to 
make this promise ; w^e do not recognize any en- 
gagement made with England. We do not want 
either to have anything to do with your consti- 
tutional transaction, we must have an inde- 
pendent Republic." 

Thereupon, in the course of two or three years, 
the whole of Ireland turned its back on Mr. 
Redmond, repudiated his declarations, and 
adopted the new formula of Sinn Fein. The 



184 IRELAND—AN ENEMY? 

game was up, and it might have been foreseen. 
Had not Parnell sworn to sever the last link? 
The situation was reached by slow stages, but it 
was reached surely. Redmond's fine deeds and 
moving phrases soothed the Radical idealists of 
England and made them oblivious of many other 
compromising threats. Unfortunately these were 
the only statements in Ireland which were worth 
anything. The Unionists were told to trust Ire- 
land, and they shrugged their shoulders. Let 
us see if they were mistaken. In December, 
1914, as Mr. Birrell refused to intervene, the 
military authorities, tired of the official inertia, 
took upon themselves to seize these little sedi- 
tious papers. And so the trouble began. Sinn 
Fein complained of persecution, held some 
stormy meetings and defied the police openly. 
Its success exceeded all its hopes; the National 
Volunteers deserted Redmond and turned over 
wholesale to the Irish Volunteers of Sinn Fein. 
Sinn Fein began to talk of "our brave allies 
the Germans," and adopted a new motto, "Gott 
strafe England!" Obviously Irish sympathies 
were drawing closer and closer to Berlin. On 
December 6th the German Dr. Kuno Meyer, for- 
merly professor of the Celtic language at Dublin 
University, announced to the Clan-na-Gael in 
New York that Germany was engaged in form- 
ing an Irish Brigade from among her prisoners. 



IRELAND DURING THE WAR 185 

That was the first confession of this fresh in- 
trigue. 

There are only two things to note of the first 
months of 1915 : the great prosperity of Ireland 
— for though dissociating herself from the war 
she did not refuse to profit by it — and the indif- 
ference of English public opinion to what was 
going on in the Emerald Isle. Ireland was not 
provoked in any way — in fact, no notice was 
taken of her, for England had other fish to fry. 
Some other pretext must be invented to excuse 
the attitude of suspicious Erin. 

On March 15th Mr. Redmond complained at 
Manchester that his Volunteers had not been 
allowed to defend Irish soil by themselves. It 
was a fairly naive hint to withdraw the English 
garrison. Ulster had made fewer reservations, 
and Belfast by March 1st had provided 19,000 
men — that is, almost 5,000 for every 100,000 in- 
habitants, more than any other town in the 
United Kingdom; the Unionist counties of Ul- 
ster represent 30 per cent, of the population of 
Ireland, but they provided 60 per cent, of its 
recruits. 

During the month of May, Dublin, headed by 
the Lord Mayor and its Nationalist members, 
began to agitate on the subject of the new du- 
ties on beer and spirits, for they would not even 
help us financially. Thereupon Mr. Redmond 



186 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

produced his ultimatum, supported by the vocif- 
erations of his whole party; and Asquith's Cab- 
inet, unable to refuse him anything, yielded at 
the first demand and withdrew its scheme. The 
lesson was not lost; and the little scene was re- 
peated every time that any help was asked from 
Ireland. 

A few days later England went through the 
first serious crisis in internal politics since the 
declaration of war. The slowing down of vol- 
untary recruiting, the insufficiency of munitions, 
the military disappointments of Neuve Chapelle 
and Gallipoli, bickerings at the Admiralty, re- 
verses in Galicia, an intrigue against Lord 
Kitchener, who was thought to be opposed to 
conscription — in short, there was a quantity of 
dirty linen to be washed, and Lord Northcliffe's 
press took charge of it with its accustomed 
vigor. It was a question of getting rid of the 
little petty back-stairs intrigues of pottering 
Radicals, of putting an end to Mr. Asquith's de- 
lays, of removing from office various lukewarm 
if not suspect personages, of insisting upon new 
blood, administrative reorganization, and per- 
fect unity of all the party leaders for the con- 
duct of the war. This produced the Coalition 
Government, when Mr. Asquith took unto him- 
self the great Conservative supporters, Lord 
Curzon, Mr. Balfour, Mr. Bonar Law, Mr. Wal- 



IRELAND DURING THE WAR 187 

ter Long, Mr. Austen Chamberlain, and the 
Trade Unionist leader, Mr. Henderson. 

In order to complete this nnion of willing 
spirits, it was only necessary to summon the 
leaders of the two rival factions in Ireland, Red- 
mond and Carson. The latter gladly accepted 
one of the junior legal appointments, but Mr. 
Redmond declined the offer and preferred to 
remain outside as a free lance. It is said that 
he only refused because he was forced to do so, 
to obey Ms party; at all events his refusal 
marked a change and withdrawal from his fine 
promises of August, 1914. 

To tell the truth, the Nationalist party were 
much dismayed to see the disappearance of the 
Home Rule Cabinet which thejs had held in 
bondage for so long, and they did not conceal 
their annoyance. The rest seemed a secondary 
matter. The rest! Civilization with its back 
to the wall, the uncertain fate of other little na- 
tions, unpunished crimes, martyrs to avenge — 
no, Ireland did not trouble about them. Can 
Nationalism only be racial egoism? 

Do you know what Dublin got excited about, 
a fortnight after the infernal affair of the Lusi- 
taniaf In the reconstruction of his Cabinet Mr. 
Asquith wished to appoint as Lord Chancellor 
of Ireland a former political opponent, a capa- 
ble and respected lawyer, but a convinced Union- 



188 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

ist. Instantly the Nationalists held a great 
Council of War and Mr. Redmond hurled his 
thunderbolts : "It is an insult to Ireland !" Mr. 
Campbell withdrew his candidature in order to 
appease these sensitive patriots; but what must 
Ulster think about the matter — she to whom has 
been promised later on under Home Rule the 
most absolute impartiality in nominations? 

In July there came another "insult to Ire- 
land." Great Britain, having enrolled 3,000,- 
000 men, saw that the flow of voluntary enlist- 
ment was practically exhausted, and prepared 
for conscription. For this purpose the popula- 
tion had to be registered and classified into the 
different categories from which fit men should 
be drawn. Ireland protested, and as the new 
Cabinet still contained Messrs. Asquith and Bir- 
rell, Mr. Redmond ordered them to resort to the 
traditional expedient. Registration shall not 
apply to Ireland — only to Ulster. 

But still promises were not fulfilled, recruit- 
ing in Ireland was slack and far below the nor- 
mal average. Fresh pretexts had to be found to 
excuse this. There was much indignation at 
Sir Edward Carson's appointment; it was in- 
sinuated that the Ulster division was not being 
sent to the front, but was being retained in its 
camps with sinister motives, etc. It was even 
maintained that the mere presence of Carson in 



IRELAND DURING THE WAR 189 

the Government was enough to absolve recal- 
citrant young Irishmen. 

The apathy of these able-bodied young men 
was, it is true, merely superficial. On August 
1st this fact was suddenly revealed, and there 
were many who thought it ominous. On that 
day O'Donovan Rossa was buried in Dublin; he 
was an old dynamiter of great age, of many 
crimes ; he had been pardoned by Gladstone and 
exiled to America; in a word, he was a perfect 
type of an "Irish martyr.'' The funeral was 
magnificent, and 10,000 Volunteers, both Red- 
mondites and Sinn Feiners, marched in the pro- 
cession in good order. At least 5,000 of them 
were armed with rifles. Under the Birrell 
regime the police were always forbidden to in- 
terfere, and the recruiting sergeants could only 
look on with envious eyes. And Mr. Redmond 
was naively more and more amazed that the 
War Office refused to recognize his Volunteers 
officially! 

At the end of October, Sir Edward Carson re- 
signed, as he would not be responsible for the 
pusillanimous diplomacy in the Balkans. His 
opponents had then one excuse the less for neg- 
lecting their duty, but recruiting did not im- 
prove for all that. Mr. Redmond tried to com- 
fort himself by pointing out the heroism of those 
Irish who were serving, and of those who came 



190 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

from Australia and Canada. We certainly ad- 
mire them all, but what had they to do with the 
matter? I will just quote in passing a statement 
on the same theme by an Irishman who, however, 
has no ill-feeling. "The country was not with 
it [i.e. the rebellion], for be it remembered that 
a whole army of Irishmen, possibly 300,000 of 
our race [he includes colonials], are fighting 
with England instead of against her" ; and a lit- 
tle farther on: "It was hard enough that our 
men in the English armies should be slain for 
causes which no amount of explanation will ever 
render less foreign to us, or even intelligible" 
(sic!). 1 The commentary spoils it all. 

Redmond made out that he was very proud of 
the attitude of his fellow-countrymen. He as- 
sured Parliament on November 2nd that for the 
first time in the course of history the whole 
Irish race fully sympathized with England in the 
war. It is true that Ireland was quiet, or ap- 
peared to be quiet. The following months will 
show us what that conceals. 

In December, 1915, The Times raised another 
alarm about Sinn Fein propaganda, and about 
small leaflets, so called, which had a consider- 
able circulation. Mr. Birrell was obliged to con- 
fess that the Irish Volunteers tried to prevent 
recruiting and to foment sedition. Unfortu- 

1 The Insurrection in Dublin, by James Stephens, pp. 87, 88. 



IRELAND DURING THE WAR 191 

nately he still did not decide to take any steps, 
and bis panacea was as usual a policy of laissez- 
faire. The malcontents armed themselves and 
drilled with more enthusiasm than ever; the 
Bishop of Limerick blessed their cause and wrote 
that "this war does not concern Ireland." All 
agreed upon a fresh argument. "We do not owe 
England anything so long as she does not put 
into force the Home Eule Act which she has 
passed. Mr. Eedmond betrayed us when he ac- 
cepted this postponement, when he neglected to 
make use of circumstances to force Mr. Asquith's 
hand and oblige him to give immediate and com- 
plete satisfaction, including the submission of 
Ulster. The English are in difficulties; the war 
is giving them more trouble than was expected. 
So much the better. 'England's difficulty, Ire- 
land's opportunity.' Let us make the most of 
it." Just at this time the Government wished 
to retrench and reduce administrative expendi- 
ture. A commission was suggested to examine 
notorious abuses of Irish administration. Mr. 
Redmond opposed it : "no Irish economies." The 
Government gave in. Yet for forty years the 
Nationalist party has been objecting to that very 
wastefulness and extravagance in the Irish esti- 
mates! How logical! How consistent! 

In the New Year of 1916 the British Cabinet 



192 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

came to the stern decision to bring in conscrip- 
tion. The idea was repugnant to Liberal Eng- 
lishmen, but when people are willing they can 
stifle their objections at so tragic a crisis and in 
so noble a cause. The debate was a solemn one 
and the Bill was passed by a very large major- 
ity. 1 Here again Mr. Redmond opposed his veto : 
the new Act was not to extend to Ireland. 
Heaven knows what worries that clause has 
caused ! 

The speech of the Irish leader was feeble. His 
main object was to assert that his country had 
done her duty; is his assertion enough to make 
us believe it? He even dared to risk a compari- 
son between Great Britain and Ireland. Is it 
not a challenge? To do it justice we produce 
the exact figures which the Government had to 
publish at the time. 

Great Britain had up to October 23rd, 1915, 
produced nearly 3,000,000 volunteers (in the 
regular army, the reserve, the navy, and Kitchen- 
er's army). 2 She still had 5,000,000 men of 
military age of whom 2,830,000 came forward 
under Lord Derby's scheme between October 
23rd and December 15th — on the condition that 

1 403 votes against 105, of which 60 were Nationalists. 
'Before the war the regular army and the navy contained 
26,000 Irishmen serving and 30,000 in the reserve. 



IRELAND DURING THE WAR 193 

they would be called up in groups, unmarried 
men first, etc. 

At the instance of Mr. Redmond, Lord Derby's 
scheme of enrolling men under categories had 
also not been applied to Ireland. Mr. Birrell 
drew up the following table for the four Irish 
provinces: (1) men of military age on August 
15th, 1915; (2) voluntary enlistments up to De- 
cember 15th. 

(1) (2) 

Leinster (Dublin) . . 174,597 27,458 or 15.7 per cent. 

Munster 136,637 14,190 " 10.4 " 

Connaught 81,392 3,589 " 4.4 * 

Ulster 169,489 49,760 " 29.5 

The reader can see whether the percentages jus- 
tify Mr. Redmond's patriotic pride so far as the 
first three provinces are concerned, which belong 
to his party. Mr. Campbell, member for Dub- 
lin University, in one of the finest speeches in 
the debate, said: 

"I would not be honest — and in this matter 
one is bound to speak plainly and frankly — if I 
were to live up, or attempt to live up, to that 
conspiracy of make-believe in regard to recruit- 
ing in Ireland which prevails to-day. . . . There 
are many parts of Ireland to-day in which you 
could not hold a recruiting meeting. There 
have been, to my own knowledge, in the last few 
months many of those recruiting meetings 



194 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

broken up, hostile resolutions carried, and even 
that great soldier Lieutenant O'Leary, who 
gained the Victoria Cross as the result of con- 
spicuous gallantry, has to my own knowledge 
been received with jeers and hoots." 1 

Mr. Campbell, in a fine passage, takes up and 
turns round the hateful formula, "England's dif- 
ficulty, Ireland's opportunity," in an ardent ap- 
peal; yes, now is come the chance for Ireland, 
the opportune moment, the hour for exalted in- 
spiration; yes, let us be loyal to the cause of 
justice and liberty, let us help England in her 
noble task. Then, indeed, we shall have deserved 
everything and we shall be able to ask for every- 
thing. We shall have won our rights otherwise 
than by rebellions and stabs in the back . . . ! 
Alas! as Mr. Campbell is an old Unionist, the 
Nationalists listened to all this with amusement, 
and a voice whispers to them the new creed — 
the motto of Sinn Fein — "Ourselves alone." 

Sir Edward Carson protested in the name of 
Ulster; his province was humiliated by this in- 
sulting favor, and valiant Irish regiments will be 
short of recruits. Mr. Redmond was angry; he 
undertook that the Irish regiments would 
not be thus neglected, there would be no lack of 
volunteers. A fine promise certainly, but who 

1 House of Commons, January 6th, 1916. 



IRELAND DURING THE WAR 195 

would keep it? Was it not flouted a year ago? 
No, Ireland will not have conscription, and the 
hour is approaching when she will thank us 
after her manner. 

• ••••• 

Imperceptibly we draw near to the edge of 
the abyss. The rebels prepared their plot un- 
der better conditions than they could have ex- 
pected; everything looked most promising for 
their schemes. No one is thinking about them, 
all eyes are turned elsewhere; the tragic anxi- 
ety of Verdun engrosses every one, and since 
midnight on March 1st there is unrestricted sub- 
marine war. Poor Ireland! another insult, the 
mortification of interesting nobody ! Even those 
who ought to be thinking about her, such as Mr. 
Birrell, do not appear to be doing so. The Sinn 
Feiners have a clear field; they are no longer 
content with field days in the country, they have 
maneuvers in Dublin itself. Night maneuvers, 
street fighting, sham sieges of the Castle, the 
citadel of the Government; and all this is done 
with modern rifles, with impunity, under the 
eyes of a muzzled police. Mr. Birrell and his 
subordinates make out that this is very amusing 
and quite harmless. The reign of these non- 
chalant gentlemen is drawing to its close, and 
soon we shall have no need to refer to them, but 
before forgetting them I will just recall one of 



196 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

the hundreds of little incidents which are typ- 
ical of the methods of these ineffable adminis- 
trators. 

The Budget of 1916 instituted a tax upon pub- 
lic entertainments, sports meetings, etc. In Ire- 
land, where everything is politics, sports are 
regulated by the Gaelic League, a sort of replica 
of Sinn Fein. Football and hockey with new 
names and trifling alterations have been turned 
by the Gaelic League into "national games for 
developing the national spirit.'' It simply 
means that they object to one of the forms of 
Anglo-Saxon influence, and no effort is made to 
conceal it. Moreover, the rules of the League 
exclude rigorously any Irishman "so cowardly as 
to wear the English uniform," and no soldier 
can enter its precincts. 

Moreover, this League demanded that it 
should pay no entertainment tax on gate-money 
for its football matches, on the plea of the higher 
interests of national idealism and other fool- 
traps. Mr. Birrell was the fool: he gave way 
with his usual suavity. Sedition was at a pre- 
mium, and this happened a fortnight before civil 
war in Dublin! 

Finally, the Courts were useless. As soon as 
a judge dared to show severity, he was repri- 
manded by Government. The juries were the 
accomplices in all misdemeanors: for a speech 



IRELAND DURING THE WAR 197 

inciting to treason the fine was one shilling, and 
the Kaiser was applauded in open court. No 
steps were taken, the police had to keep quiet. 

The forts of Verdun fall one by one, we are 
being driven into a corner, the savage brute has 
us at bay . . . we have only to be shot from be- 
hind: Sinn Fein undertakes the job. 

On April 25th, 1916, Easter Tuesday, the Ad- 
miralty published a brief communique : 

"During the period between p.m. April 20th 
and p.m. April 21st, an attempt to land arms 1 
and ammunition in Ireland was made by a ves- 
sel under the guise of a neutral merchant ship, 
but in reality a German auxiliary, in conjunction 
with a German submarine. The auxiliary sank 
and a number of prisoners were made, amongst 
them was Sir Roger Casement." 

That same evening there were other surprises : 
the German cruisers come out, the east coast of 
England is bombarded, an armed rebellion in 
Dublin, the General Post Office seized by riot- 
ers, etc. . . . We can all remember these events 
as they were described in the newspapers. The 
coincidences were conclusive: the German has 
been at work, and the Irish, too. Ireland has 
given herself away. And Mr. Birrell will have 

1 20,000 rifles captured in Russia. 



198 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

to allow, before he goes into retirement, after 
ten years of culpable weakness, that Ireland can- 
not be won by kindness. May other statesmen, 
no less sincere and well-meaning, not fall again 
into his mistake ! 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE INSURRECTION AND ITS CONSEQUENCES 

Thus, during Easter, 1916, the authorities 
charged with the duty of governing Ireland laid 
aside all anxiety and suspicion; optimism was 
the order of the day. The officers at the Curragh 
were allowed to be present on the following day 
at the steeplechases at Fairyhouse, and General 
Friend, the Commander-in-Chief, went to Lon- 
don on leave. Dublin Castle was guarded by 
seventeen men. There were no more than 1,000 
men in Dublin to hold all the barracks, maga- 
zines, etc., and 2,500 at the Curragh. 

Farther off, in the west, rumor was busy, se- 
crets were whispered from one to another mys- 
teriously. "The Germans have come to deliver 
Ireland . . . 30,000 Prussians have landed in 
Kerry, the same number of Irish-Americans at 
Wexford . . . Verdun has fallen. France has 
capitulated and signed the peace, England is im- 
ploring for a separate peace . . . the Irish 
coasts are surrounded by a cordon of subma- 
rines, English reinforcements will not be able 
to land . . ." 

199 



200 IKELAND— AN ENEMY? 

Easter Monday was a regular fete day with 
glorious sunshine. A grand parade of Sinn Fein 
Volunteers, in green uniforms, had been an- 
nounced. In the streets of Dublin there were 
many soldiers on leave, among them Canadians 
and Australians who had come to see their dis- 
tant cousins. British troops carry no arms 
when not on duty, not even a bayonet. 

Little squads of Sinn Feiners were all about, 
on their way to the parade ; they were looked at 
with curiosity, but the sight was nothing new. 
All of a sudden a young English officer who had 
just bought a stamp at the General Post Office 
was told that he was a prisoner, turned round 
and found himself between two Volunteers with 
fixed bayonets. Outside, shots were heard ; Sinn 
Fein was shooting down all the unarmed men 
on leave — a vestige of that atavistic ferocity 
which Ulster is so greatly blamed for mistrust- 
ing. A fortnight later, Mr. Dillon, speaking in 
the House of Commons, said that he regretted 
to see the ardor of his fellow-countrymen so mis- 
placed, but he was proud of their courage, and 
they fought cleanly. The Irish have these 
euphemisms ! Some cavalry were returning from 
escort duty under a second lieutenant, their 
lances at rest, and without other arms, and went 
slowly along by the quays. When the officer, 
quite a young boy, turned the corner into Sack- 



THE INSURRECTION 201 

ville Street, several shots rang out ; he fell from 
his horse, killed, then the sergeant. 

At the gates of the Castle an old policeman 
was on duty, a good old fellow, popular and well 
known in Dublin. Seeing a patrol arrive and 
thinking it was some new joke, such as he had 
seen so many of in the last two years, he raised 
his hand and said : "Now then, boys, be off with 
you, no nonsense." He was shot down and 
killed. The patrol was led by a woman who bent 
down and spat in the face of the corpse. It took 
two seconds, just time for the sentries to sum- 
mon the guard. It was thus that Dublin Castle 
was saved. 

Motor-cars, lorries, etc., were stopped and 
requisitioned for barricades. All civilians who 
did not obey (for as yet no one took all this seri- 
ously) were answered by a revolver bullet with- 
out more ado. Saint Stephen's Green was 
seized by another party, commanded by the fa- 
mous Countess Markievicz, elegantly attired in 
a green tunic, breeches, and soft felt hat. A 
daughter of one of the best and oldest families 
in the country, the Gore-Booths, aesthetic, ec- 
centric, formerly mixed up with young art stu- 
dents in Montparnasse, she had married in Paris 
a young Polish count, and had brought him back 
to Dublin, where she was at the head of the suf- 
fragettes, socialist kitchens, futurist art and de- 



202 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

cadent theater, etc. An admirer attributes this 
pious wish to the picturesque Amazon: "If I 
could only shoot one British soldier I should die 
happy !" Was the wish fulfilled? . . . Some of- 
ficers coming out from lunch at the Shelbourne 
Hotel on the other side of the square fell to the 
ground — they were just casual visitors, and un- 
armed. Finally the rebels installed themselves 
in several large buildings, made loopholes in 
them and sniped the last passers-by in khaki who 
dared to come within their range. 

This began at midday on the Monday. The 
regular troops from the Curragh did not arrive 
till that evening, and reinforcements from Eng- 
land not till the Wednesday. In the meantime 
only defenseless pedestrians were killed, quite 
an orgy of the "bravery" so dear to Mr. Dillon. 
Sinn Fein hoisted its white, green, and orange 
flag on the Post Office and proclaimed the Irish 
Republic : 

"Irishmen and Irishwomen: In the name of 
God and of the dead generations from which she 
receives her old traditions of nationhood, Ire- 
land, through us, summons her children to her 
flag. . . . Having resolutely waited for the right 
moment to reveal itself, she now seizes that mo- 
ment, and supported by her exiled children in 
America and by gallant allies in Europe . . ." 



THE INSURRECTION 203 

During this time, while the armed Sinn Fein- 
ers showed a certain amount of discipline, the 
dregs of the Dublin slums pillaged the big shops 
in the two main streets, Sackville Street and 
Grafton Street, furriers, jewelers, sweet-shops, 
etc. The next day white fox-fur muffs were 
changing hands for one or two shillings in the 
poor parts of the city. The men mostly chose 
to attack the wine and spirit dealers ; drunk and 
enraged they felled one another with the bot- 
tles, and by the evening the Dublin hospitals had 
many more wounded from that cause than by 
rifle fire. 

By nightfall Sinn Fein headquarters declared 
that they were delighted, and the fact remains 
that they had shown some tactical skill and a 
well-concerted plan. The buildings in their 
hands dominated the bridges and main roads, 
etc. They had begun the work, and as for the 
rest, they announced to the people that the Ger- 
mans would complete it. Instead of Germans, 
the steamers from England brought regiments 
of Kitchener's army, with artillery, machine- 
guns, armored cars; the men of the Irish bat- 
talions were not behindhand in their determina- 
tion to make the rebels see reason. 

On the Wednesday martial law was pro- 
claimed, and General Maxwell arrived charged 
with the duty of reestablishing order. The Gen- 



204 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

eral had just come from defending the Suez 
Canal and repulsing the Turks, and happened 
to be in England in order to take up a more im- 
portant command; in Egypt he had shown him- 
self to be a skillful administrator as well as a 
successful soldier. 

Little by little the rebels were surrounded, but 
they still held out for a few days. On Friday, 
although they knew that all was lost, their head- 
quarters issued a final piece of bravado: "The 
English Army, so proud of the Dardanelles and 
the Marne, has been conquered by us!" Then 
the glorious War of Liberation came to an end 
with the close of the week, and the whole party 
surrendered on Saturday. The sum total of the 
adventure was 124 soldiers killed, 400 wounded, 
216 civilians killed, 514 wounded. The finest 
streets in Dublin were destroyed and the dam- 
age amounted to £4,000,000. The losses of the 
Sinn Feiners could never be estimated; many 
were buried and burned under the ruins of the 
houses which had been fired, and most of the 
wounded were carried away and hidden by their 
friends. The majority of the rebels had only to 
discard a rifle and bandolier to pose as inoffen- 
sive spectators; and if there were instances of 
summary justice, it was due to the fact that in 
this case verily "the civilians had fired." Finally, 
all the witnesses, journalists, officers, and magis- 



THE INSURRECTION 205 

trates who saw the captured cases of ammuni- 
tion, and the cartridge belts left upon the field, 
agree that Germany had supplied her Irish min- 
ions with explosive bullets. That would sur- 
prise nobody. To-day the Irish will only remem- 
ber the corpses of so-called civilians, with the 
usual resounding anathemas from their melo- 
dramatic repertoire. 

Had the leaders of the movement ever reck- 
oned sincerely on success? It is hard to believe 
it. Their true motives may be found in two 
points. It had been agreed in writing between 
Casement and the Wilhelmstrasse that if the reb- 
els could hold the capital for one week during 
the Verdun offensive, Ireland would be repre- 
sented at the peace negotiations as an inde- 
pendent and sovereign nation. Sinn Fein kept 
its part of the compact ; it is for us to see that it 
gets no reward for having betrayed us. 

The other calculation was better founded and 
could not fail to succeed. "Our insurrection 
will be put down, but the moral effect will be 
immense. It will be followed by repression, and 
that will be our victory ; Ireland the Martyr will 
be grander than ever." 

Sinn Fein left at the mercy of Sir John Max- 
well about a thousand rebels taken with arms 
in their hands, the only ones at least who were 
wearing the green uniform and could not get 



206 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

through the surrounding cordon. Then, accord- 
ing to the ancient formula, Ireland's martyrdom 
began. The prisoners were taken before courts- 
martial. "Bloody courts," howled the Irish. 
Good heavens ! they are not set up to award good- 
conduct prizes. All the signatories of the proc- 
lamation were shot. Altogether there were fif- 
teen executions ; sixty-nine others who were con- 
demned to death, including Countess Markie- 
vicz, were reprieved by General Maxwell, who 
had plenary powers of life and death. The Irish 
called this a butchery. The rest of the prison- 
ers were deported to concentration camps in 
England. 

The moral effect on which Sinn Fein had 
counted soon made itself felt. A week after 
the capitulation General Maxwell passed into 
Irish legend under the name of "sinister brute," 
and other more or less Homeric epithets. "The 
soldiery drowned Ireland in blood" ... it is 
true that Mr. Birrell would have set about it less 
severely. One heard of nothing but touching 
episodes: the daring of Countess Markievicz, 
kissing her revolver before handing it over to the 
English officer; or young Plunket, a poet aged 
twenty, marrying his fiancee in his cell at mid- 
night before going to his execution. A frightful 
fuss was made about some doubtful incidents, 
about three bodies of "civilians" found hidden 



THE INSTJKKECTION 207 

in a cellar, no doubt massacred by bloodthirsty 
Tommies; or the death of Mr. Sheehy Skeffing- 
ton, shot without trial. It was proved on the 
one hand that Mr. Skeffington, one of the promot- 
ers of anti-English propaganda, had never taken 
up arms during the rebellion, and on the other 
hand that his executioner was a convalescent 
officer, not recovered from shell-shock which he 
had contracted in Flanders. Skeffington's 
widow, raised to the rank of national heroine, 
now travels about the United States, crying 
aloud for vengeance and presiding at Irish meet- 
ings against recruiting. 1 Thus the two meth- 
ods succeed one another without respite ; first ex- 
plosive bullets, then pathos and sentiment. 
Everything else is quickly forgotten! A year 
later Bishop Fogarty, in Limerick Cathedral, 
bowed at the name of the "brave and heroic Irish- 
men shot at Dublin, with unmerciful brutality." 
There are now only noble victims of Saxon bar- 
barity. Oh, if the Sinn Feiners had had to deal 
with their "gallant allies" ! If they could have 
enjoyed the "preventive" mildness of Aerschot or 
of Dinant ! 

History repeats itself in its contradictions as 
in its analogies. The man who prescribed for 

1 She afterwards returned to Liverpool, and assisted in an- 
other agitation because the English authorities would not 
allow her to return to Ireland. 



208 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

ten years to the English Government the in- 
fallible remedy "trust poor Ireland" did not fear 
to turn accuser ; John Redmond asked the Prime 
Minister on May 8th, 1916 : 

"whether he was aware that the continuance of 
military executions in Ireland had caused rap- 
idly increasing bitterness and exasperation 
among large sections of the population who had 
no sympathy with the rising, and whether it 
might not be better to follow the precedent set 
up by General Botha in South Africa, where 
only one had been executed and the rest exceed- 
ingly leniently treated, and stop the executions 
forthwith?" 

All the Irish members joined in the chorus. 
Mr. Asquith found himself treated as an assassin. 
Poor Mr. Asquith ! to have coquetted with those 
rebels for so long and come to that at last ! 

Mr. Birrell and Lord Y^imborne, the Yiceroy, 
resigned of course, bewailing themselves and 
pleading that they had acted for the best. The 
Radical party were much mortified, for they had 
had too many warnings to be excused; but all 
those who were responsible, Irish and English 
Liberals, were quickly agreed upon the reply to 
make: "All that is Carson's fault!" A grand 
idea! Carson, who for two years had not said 
a word, who had not uttered one complaint or 
provocation, and had preached in Ireland noth- 



THE INSURRECTION 209 

ing but peace; Carson, whose one thought was 
for the great war, and who was entirely devoted 
to the great Crusade! 

Mr. Redmond and his friends have on many 
occasions declared that the "Irish people" were 
not implicated, and had shown no sympathy for 
the rebellion. We must understand one another. 
The armed rebels, it is true, only amounted to a 
few thousands. But if the rest of the nation was 
willing to insult and curse England, can one 
say that it was not their accomplice? I believe 
that Mr. Birrell's evidence before the Commis- 
sion of Inquiry is conclusive, for no one can ac- 
cuse the former Chief Secretary of prejudice 
against Ireland. 

"You had a certain number of prosecutions 
for anti-recruiting and seditious meetings, but 
you could not get convictions with a jury? — 
No. It was not merely that the jury disagreed, 
but they acquitted? — They acquitted, yes . . . 
when it was a case against a schoolmaster for 
having explosives and ammunition in his bag 
and seditious literature and all that — we could 
not get a conviction. That was before a jury." * 

This was confirmed by all the witnesses at the 
inquiry. Before this same commission, Major 

1 Evidence before the Royal Commission on the Rebellion in 
Ireland (Mr. Birrell), May 19th, 1916, p. 25. 



210 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

Price, one of the heads of the police, gave evi- 
dence in these words : 

"The one unfortunate thing which hindered 
us a good deal was the attitude of the official 
Nationalist party and their press. Whenever 
General Friend did anything strong in the way 
of suppressing or deporting the Sinn Fein lead- 
ers from Ireland, they at once deprecated it in 
the Nationalist press and said it was a mon- 
strous thing to turn any man out of Ireland." 1 

It is the same old cry of all riotings and all 
rebellions: preventive measures are odious, re- 
pression and retaliation are criminal ! 

• ••••• 

After the rebellion the Nationalist party, 
which had for the last two years been forced by 
its leader to adopt a dignified mien and a re- 
serve to which it was unaccustomed, was de- 
lighted to return to its guerrilla warfare, and 
to be able to spit out all its accumulated venom. 
It set about it with joy, it monopolized the at- 
tention of Parliament, and questions and abuse 
increased more and more. Would the Govern- 
ment stop the arrests? the requisitions? restore 
civil supremacy? see that troops were not 
marched along the high roads of Ireland? treat 
prisoners properly? treat them as prisoners of 

1 Evidence before the Royal Commission on the Rebellion in 
Ireland (Major Ivor H. Price), May 25th, 1916, p. 57. 



THE INSURRECTION 211 

war according to international conventions ! etc., 
etc. 

I have had to read over all this rubbish, and 
could find nothing in it but the most surprising 
pettiness and irrelevance. There is not one 
gleam of regeneration, no solid basis on which 
to rebuild the ruins — nothing but obstruction, 
hatred, rage, scorn. 

Not one gleam? Well, yes, one; but it came 
from England. On May 25th Mr. Asquith and 
his Coalition Cabinet proposed to the Irish par- 
ties that they should resume the conferences 
which King George had summoned in July, 1914, 
and try to find a modus vivendi between them- 
selves. The idea was a good one; the quarrel 
is no longer — if it ever was — between Ireland 
and England, but between two enemy Irelands. 
They must begin by examining the situation, and 
by looking for possible points of contact. A con- 
necting link was necessary, a president of the 
court, a critic or an impartial adviser ; it should 
be Mr. Lloyd George, at that time Minister of 
Munitions. He is a Welsh Celt, his fervor and 
imagination ought to please the Irish, and he 
has no "Irish past" — he is not compromised by 
any prejudice on the question. There is strong 
hope that in this solemn hour, heavy with re- 
morse and anguish, in the shame which must 
make Irish patriots blush, and after a bloody 



212 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

awakening from too wild dreams, every one will 
feel inclined to be generous and accommodating 
over the transaction. 

For some weeks people consoled themselves 
with this illusion. According to gossip from 
Parliamentary lobbies, Mr. Lloyd George was 
conferring with the protagonists; he seemed to 
be smiling and confident, the atmosphere was 
good and promised an understanding between 
all the, rivals; at last the eternal Irish question 
was to be solved. Mirage! 

There was still no official communique upon 
the result of the conferences, but soon rumors 
were crystallized: Sir Edward Carson was said 
to have renewed the proposal submitted in 1914 
to the Conference at Buckingham Palace — that 
is to say, to take no further steps against Home 
Eule if the Protestant counties of Ulster were 
excluded — and Lloyd George was said to be ne- 
gotiating on that basis. 

That was enough to dispel the mirage. The 
Nationalists grew excited, and threatened : "All 
or nothing: Ireland is indivisible; you have no 
right to dismember her." Eedmond might per- 
haps have yielded, but he was carefully reminded 
that he had no longer any authority and that he 
represented nobody any more. The clergy de- 
clared themselves flatly hostile, the Bishops is- 
sued a proclamation against Lloyd George's pro- 



THE INSURRECTION 213 

posal. The Southern Unionists were not con- 
tent either, for to grant Home Eule thus on the 
morrow of rebellion was not encouraging to law- 
abiding men. And Sinn Fein was already exult- 
ing openly and saying that its methods had 
thrown England into a panic and made Minis- 
ters bestir themselves. At once Redmond was 
much alarmed at having accepted the exclusion 
of the Ulster counties, and the only thing left 
for him to do was to try to back out, recrimi- 
nate, quibble over temporary or final exclusion, 
get tied up in subtleties, trying to run with the 
hare and hunt with the hounds, promising at the 
same time to his partisans that Ulster would 
have to "adhere automatically" to Home Rule 
Ireland after a certain time, and to Ulster that 
there would never be any question of constrain- 
ing her by force. 

In short, no agreement could be reached. Out 
of the whole of this sterile conference we need 
only recall two or three facts, and they will form 
a fairly accurate summary of the Irish question. 

1. Mr. Asquith, the Prime Minister, and Mr. 
Devlin, the leader of the Roman Catholic Na- 
tionalists of Ulster, both expressly admitted the 
principle of the exclusion of Ulster. 

2. The whole of the rest of Ireland was on the 
contrary violently opposed to it. 

3. The desire to arrive at a compromise ex- 



214 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

isted only in London. Several letters from Sir 
Horace Plunkett reminded the English that in 
Ireland no one either sought or desired compro- 
mise. And if Mr. Redmond made undertakings 
in the name of Ireland, all, people, press, and 
clergy, unanimously repudiated him before- 
hand ; once again his is a voice crying in the wil- 
derness. 

4. The only man who in the whole of the de- 
bate spoke like a statesman and received con- 
gratulations from all sides, both friends and ene- 
mies, was again Sir Edward Carson, in the 
speech which is perhaps the noblest in the whole 
of his career: 

"The Home Rule Act was put upon the Statute 
Rook shortly after the war began, but there was 
accompanying it a statement by . . . the Prime 
Minister . . . that they never contemplated the 
coercion of Ulster. . . . After that statement 
had been made so far as I am concerned . . . 
Ireland to a very large extent . . . had passed 
out of my political consideration altogether. I 
thought only of the war from that day forward. 
. . . The war swallows up everything. . . . Let 
there be no idea of the coercion of Ulster. Let 
it be completely struck out of the Bill, and then 
go on to win her if you can. . . . She can be 
won when good government is shown or admin- 
istered in the rest of Ireland. . . . But what 
have you to look forward to when the war is 
over? . . . We will resume our old quarrels over 



THE INSURRECTION 215 

how Ulster is to be excluded when we have just 
come to terms as to how she should be dealt with. 
I look forward to it with horror. There is one 
thing : At the end of the war we will have had 
enough of fighting." * 

But as the whole of Nationalist Ireland is of 
a different opinion, Lloyd George and his nego- 
tiators received nothing but groans and booings, 
and England got a little more abuse. 

And Ireland returned to her routine of sulki- 
ness, pin-pricks, and outbursts of fury. A new 
Chief Secretary was appointed, Mr. Duke, one 
of the most well-meaning men in the world, who 
felt sure that he would soon have splendid re- 
sults by his gentleness and tact. Could he for- 
get so speedily the avatars of his predecessor? 

Ireland was again plunged in obscurity, for 
the other conflict continued, far more terrible, 
and during all that time there were many more 
urgent matters to think about than the Irish 
imbroglio — the battles of the Somme and of Jut- 
land, BrussilofPs offensive, the martyrdom (gen- 
uine in this case) of Miss Cavell and Captain 
Fryatt and of all our tortured prisoners. 

Those who visited Ireland in the autumn of 
1916 were surprised to note a change of which 
the London newspapers had spoken little; that 
was the fact that Sinn Fein was winning sympa- 

1 House of Commons, July 24th, 1916. 



216 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

thy on all sides, and that its propaganda had 
made striking progress. Its flag flew every- 
where, its rosette was in every button-hole, its 
publications were all over the place, and its 
songs were heard at every meeting, both in the 
towns and in the villages. The portraits of the 
Easter Monday rebels were in the shop windows, 
and workingmen raised their hats as they 
passed. The deed was done, the scheme of the 
rebels had materialized, the rebellion had 
brought the "moral victory" on which they had 
reckoned; this is quite consonant with all the 
past history of the distressful isle. 

A Nationalist member, one of the party which 
was by way of disapproving of Sinn Fein, stated 
openly in an address that during Easter week 
they had witnessed abominable executions: the 
brutal murder of the best men whom Ireland had 
ever produced (sic). 1 

The English Government was even blamed for 
having allowed Casement to be executed! A 
petition asking for his reprieve had been signed 
by Cardinal Logue and several Catholic prelates. 
Moreover, in a long speech in the House of Com- 
mons on October 18th, 1916, Mr. Redmond him- 
self took up the thread of the national legend 
which had hardly been interrupted. For the last 
two years he could see nothing but English stu- 

1 Kilkenny, October 14th, 1916. 



THE INSURRECTION 217 

pidity; he forgot that nothing had been done 
without his advice or his orders. According to 
him, if the Irish regiments were short of men 
it was the fault of the blind and obstinate War 
Office which would not follow his recommenda- 
tions, adopt such-and-such a flag, such-and-such 
emblems, grant commissions to his good inof- 
fensive Nationalists, keep up the troops in bar- 
racks or let regiments parade at the places, days, 
and hours which Mr. Redmond wished, etc. . . . 
in a word, would not give in to the whims of 
those fine fellows whom they did wrong to mis- 
trust. The rebellion? pshaw! — a small matter 
when all was said and done; was it not almost 
justified by the horrors of its suppression? You 
will often find these a posteriori arguments in 
Irish polemic. This is how the history of this 
martyred race is written; one could laugh at it 
if one did not know that in twenty years' time 
earnest men will take these fables, so solemnly 
stated, as true facts. 

By thus persistently demanding mercy for 
traitors and indulgence for rebels, Mr. Redmond 
and his satellites did not seem to realize that they 
were compromising themselves. They would 
soon have to realize it: contrary to their expec- 
tations it was not they who were to recover their 
lost prestige, it was the rebels whose audacity 
increased and whose halo shone still more 



218 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

brightly, for their influence increased in an 
amazing way in 1917. 

Mr. Lloyd George having replaced Mr. As- 
quith as head of the Cabinet, the Nationalist 
leader saw fit to ask him another question: 
"Would the Government without further delay 
confer upon Ireland the free institutions long 
promised to her and put Ulster under compul- 
sion ?" 

That is frank enough! at last we know what 
they are aiming at. Mr. Redmond, in order to 
allay anxiety, had allowed Mr. Asquith to sus- 
pend the application of so keenly disputed a 
measure until after the war: moreover, he had 
promised Ulster divers delays in order to bring 
her in of her own free will ; had guaranteed am- 
ple safeguards, etc. All that no longer counted ; 
since the sick man had declined an anaesthetic, 
he was to be bound and cut up alive. Irish "in- 
dependence" has made a decidedly bad begin- 
ning. 

The Prime Minister's reply was clear, and let 
us hope final : 

"There are two questions to be asked by all 
of us. The first is this. Are the people of this 
country prepared to confer self-government on 
the parts of Ireland which unmistakably demand 
it? The answer which I give on behalf of the 
•Cabinet is that the Government are firmly of 



THE INSURRECTION 219 

that opinion, and they are firmly of the opin- 
ion that that represents the views of the vast ma- 
jority of the people of this country. The next 
point is this. Are the people of this country 
prepared to force the population of the north- 
eastern corner of Ireland to submit to be gov- 
erned by a population with whom they are 
completely out of sympathy? In my judgment, 
and here I speak on behalf of the Government, 
there is but one answer to that. They are not." 1 

Mr. Redmond rose from his seat, followed by 
the whole of his party, and left the House and 
banged the doors. The following day he cabled 
a proclamation to the President of the United 
States and to the Premiers of the colonial Gov- 
ernments, accusing the British Government of 
treason and disloyalty. In Ireland itself there 
was a great to-do, a chorus of protests, a fresh 
manifesto from the Bishops against the "parti- 
tion of the nation." The Times asked for the 
views of eminent Americans, statesmen, profes- 
sors, cardinals, Roosevelt, Taft, Monsignor Gib- 
bons, Monsignor Ireland: all were opposed to 
partition and decided light-heartedly that Ulster 
had only to yield. It was easily said. Sinn 
Fein continued to gain ground, carried off with 
a high hand all the vacant seats in the by-elec- 
tions; the official Nationalists who openly pro- 

1 House of Commons, March 7th, 1917. 



220 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

fessed to espouse the cause of the Allies were 
left stranded. 

In a word, the question relapsed into the dead- 
lock from which it is still far from freeing itself. 
Home Rule is offered to Ireland — she will have 
none of it, insists on having Ulster on the pre- 
text of national unity. The demand is folly: 
England really cannot be expected to use force 
to make Ulster separate from her. The only 
possible conclusion, one which foreign critics 
still do not seem to understand, is that England 
has not much to do with the matter. It is sim- 
ply a quarrel between the Irish groups, and the 
two conflicting proposals are irreconcilable. 
Every solution conceived in London dissatisfies 
one or the other party ; it rests with them to come 
to an agreement. 

There are precedents for this ; the most recent 
and best known is that of the South African con- 
stitution, drawn up on the spot by the interested 
parties; let Ireland do likewise and submit her 
scheme. Till now she has never wished to take 
the initiative, and has been satisfied with criti- 
cizing everything which Great Britain suggests 
to her. In that she has a characteristic in com- 
mon with many oppressed nationalities — so- 
called; her policy is in its essence negative, ob- 
structionist and destructive. 



THE INSURRECTION 221 

Now Lloyd George is the antithesis of all this. 
Though a Celt himself — and Heaven knows he 
is proud enough of the fact — he belies Momm- 
sen's celebrated dictum, he has the sense of 
"constructive" politics. Moreover, with the 
faults of his race and his dangerous impulsive- 
ness, he also has its imagination and enthusiasm, 
everything which the Irish deny to the "despic- 
able Saxon." Seeing this unhappy nation going 
adrift once more, more distracted than ever, he 
repeats what the English have already said to 
her hundreds of times: 

"My good friends," he says to them in effect, 
"your imprecations are very eloquent, your rep- 
ertory of insults have a picturesqueness of their 
own, your tragic history, your painful past, your 
sentimental soul all combine to make you at- 
tract our sympathy. But all that is very bar- 
ren ; could you not agree to give a little thought 
to other matters" — (interruptions and protest 
from outraged patriotism) — "to imitate the 
methods which have given elsewhere results of 
which you are jealous ; in a word, could you not 
complain less and work harder? 

"For see, the opportunity has arisen. You ac- 
cuse us of all your misfortunes, you say that you 
are in bondage. Well, I will leave you masters 
of your destinies. I will call together the chosen 
spirits from among your people, a hundred of 
your most eminent men by reason of their rank, 
wisdom, and experience; we will include all the 



222 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

responsible bodies in the State, lawyers, admin- 
istrators, financiers, bishops, politicians, theo- 
retical and practical economists — Irishmen all. 
But as your case is based upon the self-govern- 
ment of minorities of distinct nationality, we 
will give the latter a large share of representa- 
tion, even those whom you dislike. I invite your 
fiercest extremists, those Sinn Feiners who have 
just attacked us with arms in their hands. They 
refuse? I regret it; they would have been wel- 
come, we were so anxious to know their argu- 
ments. 

"Apart from that this Senate can do as it' 
pleases. I promise you not to interfere with it. 
It shall be absolute master of the choice of its 
methods of work, of the secrecy of its delibera- 
tions. I hope that it will bring to its work all 
the wisdom, all the dignity, conciliation, breadth 
of view, and foresight expected from such an 
august assembly. It will endeavor to draw up 
your Constitution, to organize that much-longed- 
for liberty which will at last allow you" (here 
the speaker smiles), "I am sure, to recover your 
former splendors" (here the speaker keeps his 
countenance). 

"And when it has accomplished this noble 
task, I promise you once more to ratify its de- 
cisions and to obtain the consent of my Parlia- 
ment and my sovereign. On one condition, be 
it understood: these schemes must be adopted 
within the bosom of your commission by consid- 
erable majorities, thus representing concessions 
and compromises. If you persist in voting sol- 
idly bj races, by religions, by factions, nothing 



THE INSURRECTION 223 

can be done ; I will have none of these promises 
of civil war. And now, to work." 

The whole House applauded and all the party 
leaders agreed to try the experiment. But — > 
there is always a "but" to entangle matters in 
the history of Ireland! — murmurs were already 
heard; the abstention of Sinn Fein, the most 
popular party, was significant, and pamphlets 
abused the English Ministers who wanted to 
evade their responsibilities. 

Nevertheless there is no doubt that Lloyd 
George by this very simple and very lucid in- 
spiration had just won a far more decisive vic- 
tory than the Irish believed; a moral victory of 
which the result would be felt chiefly abroad, in 
Europe, and farther afield: it was his turn to 
put the plaintiffs in the dock and hand over to 
them the burden of proof. 

The Convention sat in secret, and in order to 
avoid polemics and hostile criticisms the news- 
papers were forbidden to publish anything about 
the deliberations, except the official communi- 
ques. At the opening meeting Sir Horace 
Plunkett was unanimously elected President, 
and all serious-minded men welcomed the choice 
of such a man. 

In order that the Convention should start its 
work in an unimpeachable atmosphere, the Gov- 



224 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

ernment thought it advisable to grant a general 
amnesty and to release the last rebels of 1916 
who were interned in England. Their intention 
was certainly excellent, but as usual the result 
was disappointing; at the very moment when 
the liberated prisoners were landing in Ireland 
yery serious riots broke out in Cork; the mob 
attacked the prison and the recruiting office, 
threw the flags of the Allies into the river and 
hoisted that of Sinn Fein. Everywhere the 
prisoners had a triumphant return ; the town of 
Kilkenny elected the Countess Markievicz to the 
freedom of the city. 

The seat of Major Redmond, who had just been 
killed at Messines, was immediately won by an 
immense majority by the Sinn Feiner de Valera, 1 
who had been a section commander during the 
rebellion, had been condemned to death and re- 
prieved. The incident was very mortifying for 
the Nationalists, who had already profited by 
William Redmond's noble end to pose as a lot of 
misunderstood heroes. 

Young priests figured more and more fre- 
quently in Sinn Fein meetings and processions. 
On August 5th, the anniversary of Casement's 
execution was feted, and thousands of peasants 

*De Valera is of South. American origin. In all countries 
one often finds foreign protagonists or men of mixed descent 
at the head of nationalist movements. 



THE INSURRECTION 225' 

made a pilgrimage to the shore at Ardfert where 
the traitor was captured. j 

Therefore everything was done from the Eng- 
lish side to obtain the concurrence and goodwill 
of the Irish ; it is the Irish alone who refuse to 
give it, and as they repudiate beforehand in a 
hundred different ways the Nationalist leaders 
who claim to represent them at the Convention, 
what good can be expected to come of it? Once 
again promises will be worthless. All that is of 
very bad omen. 

For months on end we look on at a disconcert- 
ing contrast. On the one hand there is a Con- 
vention for settlement, which the initiated say 
is on a fair way to success, working in secret — 
all the members who are questioned on the sub- 
ject between the meetings declare thajb every- 
thing is going well, all the symptoms are encour- 
aging, and there is every hope that it will come 
to a satisfactory solution. On the other hand 
there is the nation which persists in agitations, 
compromising and damning itself at the very, 
moment when efforts are being made for its sal- 
vation. The Sinn Fein Volunteers now amount 
to 200,000 according to Mr. Duke, 1 to 500,000 
according to cle Valera, and the whole island 
was given over to a fresh access of terrorism as 
it was ten years previously; policemen were as- 

1 House of Commons, October 24th, 1917. 



228 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

sassinated, boycotting in the villages, and cattle 
driving, etc., were in full swing — in a word, all 
those amenities which the Irish peasants, who 
since the war started had been fully occupied 
coining money, had almost forgotten to in- 
dulge in. 

Take this little incident. In November, 1917, 
a humble village schoolmistress, Mrs. Ryan, was 
expelled by a party of Sinn Feiners. Her crime? 
"For having played the Dead March in Saul on 
the school piano before her pupils on hearing of 
the death of Lord Kitchener," in 1916! That 
was definite enough. Sinn Feiners decreed that 
the school should be closed, and posted sentries 
until another teacher arrived. The spokesmen 
of Sinn Fein confess quite openly that their 
keenest wish is to see the Convention fail and to 
make it fail. At the same time, within the said 
Convention all the Unionist and Ulster dele- 
gates, who are to be converted to the principle 
of Irish unity, have a hundred more excellent 
reasons for looking at it with suspicion. 

We now come to 1918, and as the feeling 
grows that the Convention is drawing to its end 
excitement increases. Rumor has it that the 
unity of views or the spirit of conciliation, so 
miraculously preserved until then on subsidiary 
questions, has been badly shattered since the 
really essential problem has been under discus- 



THE INSURRECTION 227 

sion, namely the national status and its exact re- 
lations with Great Britain. At this moment Sir 
Edward Carson left the Cabinet. 

"It is, however, apparent that whatever the 
result of the Convention may be, its proceedings 
may lead to a situation demanding a decision by 
the Government on grave matters of policy in 
Ireland. 

"After anxious consideration I feel certain 
that it will be of advantage to the War Cabinet 
to discuss this policy without my presence, hav- 
ing regard to the very prominent part which I 
have taken in the past in relation to the Home 
Rule controversy and to the pledges by which I 
am bound to my friends in Ulster." 

Every one congratulated him for taking this 
step. 

On the following day, January 23rd, a bomb 
fell, and all the bitterness which, thanks to com- 
pulsory silence, had been dormant since the 
opening of the Convention, revived again. The 
Times correspondent at Washington 1 sent his 
newspaper threatening warnings as to what the 
United States and President Wilson expected, if 

1 This same correspondent, during the interminable exchange 
of Notes between Washington and our Allies on the subject of 
the right of blockades, of search, etc., was always putting 
us on our guard, with very remarkable prejudice, against the 
arguments of our diplomacy and invariably advised us to give 
in to the American point of view. 



228 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

he were to be believed, from the Convention and 
the British Government. 

He began by answering for the President's 
private views on the subject of Irish claims, by 
recalling the fact that he had recently accepted 
a little statuette commemorating the rebel Em- 
met (see Chapter II, p. 24), and had just given 
an interview with much warmth to Sheehy Skef- 
fington's widow. He stated that the President 
had on several occasions brought considerable 
pressure to bear on Lord Bryce, and on Mr. Bal- 
four during his tour in the States, in favor of 
the Nationalists. He warned us that if the Con- 
vention resulted in a fresh disappointment the 
interest and help of America in this war would 
thereby be greatly reduced (sic) ; that numerous 
Congressmen were to raise questions upon Eng- 
lish bad feeling; and that, counting on that to 
gain the Irish vote at the next election, this 
competition of Republicans and Democrats 
would give the next Congress a large anti-Eng- 
lish majority. 

Let us hope that the correspondent exagger- 
ated, that both elected and rulers, in spite of 
the impetuous enthusiasm of young countries, 
have enough tact and foresight to know to what 
point one can interfere with other people's busi- 
ness. This slight danger seems to be farther off 
to-day, and since January, 1918, many facts have 



THE INSURRECTION 229 

already enlightened our oversea friends and their 
President, who have been won over to our cause 
so loyally. Mrs. Skeffington, when she left the 
White House, set to work to denounce our Al- 
liance throughout the country, by taking up the 
calumnies of the late Bishop O'Dwyer, and by 
beseeching the Americans not to come to our 
help. The States learnt little by little all the 
outrages to the Stars and Stripes perpetrated by 
the mad Sinn Feiners, all the insults which Mr. 
de Valera and his friends hurled at the President 
and his Ministers. Finally the attitude of Ire- 
land on the subject of conscription, and the re- 
cent official revelations on the direct relations 
between Sinn Fein and Berlin, changed the sym- 
pathy of many. The conclusion which The 
Times correspondent cabled was very simple: 
Ulster must yield; a minority cannot stand out 
against the wishes of the Irish majority. He 
does not seem to realize that Ulster is not a mi- 
nority of the Irish people, but a separate race. 

At all events the effect of this brutal dictation 
on the Old World was disastrous: polemics re- 
vived, British pride was roused, Ulster shook 
with rage, and the success of the Convention was 
still further compromised! 

The month of March, 1918, brought Ireland a 
double calamity — the death of Mr. Redmond and 
the deplorable choice of his successor. 



230 IRELAND—AN ENEMY? 

John Redmond was behind his time ; he could 
hardly make himself understood by his fellow- 
countrymen. Attached to the grand Parliamen- 
tary manner of the two most illustrious servants 
of Nationalist Ireland, perhaps the only two gen- 
uine statesmen whom she has ever produced, 
Grattan and O'Connell ; careful, as they were, of 
constitutional forms, of respect for order, know- 
ing, as they did, when to bow before world-wide 
necessities of a higher level than national ego- 
ism, he had become almost an anachronism 
among his people. He marked a reaction from 
his immediate predecessor and from the vio- 
lence of Parnell. He was able to hold the reins 
for some time, thanks to great tactical skill and 
to the substantial results which he knew so well 
how to extract from the English Ministers. Rut 
his methods never had the same attraction for 
Ms race as those of Parnell: Ireland ended by 
finding him too prudent, and sent his advice to 
the winds. They wanted picrate, powder and 
shot, and Redmond had none of those articles. 
His was the painful end of deserted leaders and 
repudiated saints. 

We shall never be able to forget that he un- 
dertook and embraced our great cause spontane- 
ously, courageously, and with perseverance, and 
that on the whole he risked and lost Ms popular- 
ity in the service of our rights. 



THE INSURRECTION 231 

On March 12th, 1918, the Nationalist party- 
elected as his successor the man who was impris- 
oned with Parnell in 1881, Mr. John Dillon. 
Nothing could show better what are the pres- 
ent tendencies in Ireland, how Redmond's policy- 
has failed, and what concessions must be granted 
in order to win popular favor once more. 

Mr. John Dillon is a very outspoken man. He 
glories in never having taken any part in a re- 
cruiting meeting. On the morrow of the Dub- 
lin rebellion he delivered in the House of Com- 
mons, as we have seen, a panegyric on the rebels, 
and declared loudly that he was proud of those 
brave men. Redmond had at least given Ulster 
promises of safeguards, temporary exclusion, 
etc. ; with Dillon there is no longer any danger 
that we shall suffer from illusions. I have 
quoted above enough of his assertions; there is 
no need to repeat all his speeches here, and give 
him more importance than he deserves. 

Since his election he is engaged, as one had to 
expect, in trying more or less shamelessly to 
draw nearer to Sinn Fein. We need only be pa- 
tient a little longer, and we shall soon see him 
throw aside the mask and cast off what little 
shame he still possesses. 

It did not need all this to consummate the 
final failure of the Convention. Of what use is 
it to promise political toleration and fiscal equity 



232 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

in the name of a people who has no other ideal 
than terrorism? 



In presenting the final report, Sir Horace 
Plunkett stated in the letter with which he 
prefaces it, "The difficulties of the Irish Conven- 
tion may be summed up in two words — Ulster 
and Customs." 

We know how firmly Ulster was prepared to 
oppose the Asquith scheme in 1914. In now 
consenting to confer with the Nationalist party 
in order to come to some arrangement which 
might preserve Irish unity, she certainly reck- 
oned on more reassuring proposals than those of 
1914. She was disappointed again and again by 
the following clauses by which, instead of con- 
cessions, she was offered fresh ultimata. 

The former text had excluded from the com- 
petence of the Irish Parliament, among other 
matters, the army and navy, treaties, land pur- 
chase, the constabulary, and previous loans. 
Now the spokesmen of Ireland demanded all 
these. Conscription could no longer be applied 
without their consent — that is equivalent to say- 
ing never; they wish to raise a territorial army 
in their pay and under their orders — that is very 
subtle! In future they are to arbitrate without 
appeal on the subject of land purchase between 
the peasants — their constituents — and the land- 



THE INSURRECTION 233 

lords — English for the most part; they would 
have the management of all the millions lent by 
the English who trusted in Imperial caution; 
they would have all police powers — as well say 
impunity for their turbulent friends. The first 
suspicions, the first clouds have appeared on the 
horizon. 

But the Unionist delegates were to have other 
shocks. Under the pretext that the island had 
paid too many taxes in the past (the National- 
ists assume that to be a self-evident truth), she 
is to be exonerated from all share in the National 
Debt, including the debt for the Great War, 
which has, however, protected Ireland as well 
as the rest of the Empire. Here we have finance 
marvellously simplified; the Bolsheviks have 
made disciples ! 

Finally the touchstone of the whole Convention 
was the claim, put forward categorically and 
unanimously by the Nationalists, to raise Cus- 
toms barriers and negotiate any commercial 
treaties which they chose; "on that matter our 
national dignity cannot yield!" Neither could 
Ulster's imperialist patriotism. From the mo- 
ment that this confession was made negotiations 
were superfluous, and the blindest might read 
the hidden motives, however well-disguised. 

It would take too long to reproduce here all 
the arguments of the two parties. Ireland main-. 



234 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

tains that her agricultural interests will never 
be preserved by the Customs system of an indus- 
trial Great Britain. Must we recall the fact 
that at present England is still a Free Trade 
country, and that Ireland is very prosperous 
under the present regime? Her produce is at 
a premium, and never have her farmers handled 
so many banknotes. Ulster replies that she, for 
her part, is industrial, and that the Customs ar- 
ranged by Ireland, three-quarters of which are 
agricultural, will not hesitate to sacrifice her 
interests. The pseudo-separatists had never 
dared in 1914 to make such a suspicious demand. 
If, on the contrary, Protection is wanted to re- 
constitute Irish industry, Ulster's example is 
sufficient proof that it is quite unnecessary. 

These poor creatures imagine innocently that 
they need only make the laws in Dublin, in or- 
der to see magnificent factories springing up 
everywhere, and it appears that the Americans 
have promised them dazzling combines. They 
would do well to begin by inspiring confidence 
in the indispensable capitalist, that bugbear of 
"the friends of the people." Now capital needs 
order and security, and it is a bad plan to start 
by repudiating the National Debt for a historical 
fad. 

The Convention discussed the intrinsic merits 
of scores of amendments. Was it necessary? It 



THE INSURRECTION 235 

took as its theme colonial precedents, and de- 
manded the status of Dominions with full fiscal 
autonomy. Well, yes, that could be done else- 
where. Why does the analogy not hold good? 
Because, as the report of the Ulster delegates 
has it, there is a preliminary question : 

"We cannot overlook the strong probability 
that the controlling force in such a Parliament 
would to-day be the Republican or Sinn Fein 
party, which is openly and aggressively hostile 
to Great Britain and the Empire. During re- 
cent months in many parts of Ireland outside 
of Ulster there has been a great renewal of law- 
lessness and crime bordering on anarchy." * 

That has been said over and over again, at the 
risk of fatiguing the reader in an effort to prove 
the point; but at bottom that is the pith of the 
matter. Theories are confounded by the facts. 
Seeing the peril of the conflict of principles on 
the fiscal question, Sir Horace wrote on Novem- 
ber 6th, 1917, to the sub-committee of nine ap- 
pointed to endeavor to find a basis of agreement : 
"To this end we must also assume — and I am sure 
our Ulster friends will agree to assume — that in 
its economic policy the Irish Parliament will be 
guided by common sense." The report of the 
Nationalist delegates asks much the same thing : 

1 Report of the Convention, p. 33. 



236 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

"Any settlement founded on distrust of Ireland 
will fail in its effect." * 

That is highly probable. But when you want 
to win people's confidence, you should be care- 
ful not to alarm them as clumsily as did the Na- 
tionalists during the Convention. 

First of all you try to have some consistency 
and continuity in your undertakings. On April 
17th, 1918, the Municipal Council of Cork de- 
manded a measure of Home Eule which would 
give satisfaction to the Irish race. There lies 
the rub. The history of the nineteenth century 
has proved that the Irish race is not easy to sat- 
isfy. After having pretended to accept a Con- 
stitution in 1914 and sworn to be satisfied with 
it, you should not, three years later, assert that 
it is ridiculous, insulting to national dignity, un- 
acceptable by a free people, etc. . . . To-morrow, 
Sinn Fein, which has not chosen to lend a hand 
in the new structure of 1917, will hurriedly de- 
molish it with similar arguments, and this is all 
the more certain that it is already stating the 
fact. 

Then again, you do not in a deed of settlement 
pile up threats of friction, and a hundred ways 
of damaging your creditor as soon as he has re- 
nounced his due. Finally you do not go surety 
for the goodwill of a people which refuses to 

1 Report of the Convention, p. 38. 



THE INSURRECTION 237 

carry out its undertakings and which is engaged 
in giving you the lie by flagrant acts. 

What security is left? Hopes and wishes. 
Ulster is besought to "assume" Irish good faith, 
but can you ask a people to risk its fate on an 
assumption? She has never been offered any- 
thing more substantial than temporary guaran- 
tees to be revised after five or ten years. So 
much the worse for Irish unity, but she will have 
none of it at that price ; she is perfectly content 
to belong to the British Union, and she has no 
wish to change masters. 



CHAPTEK IX 

CONCLUSIONS AND FORECASTS 

There is a curious contrast in this unfortu- 
nate quarrel. The Irish, dogmatically minded, 
do not wish sincerely for a conciliatory solution ; 
the English never appear to realize this, and are 
still under illusions which would be dangerous 
if Ulster did not recall them to realities. 

Talk about Ireland in any London drawing- 
room, even at a moment when the Irish are in- 
dulging in the most outrageous lawlessness and 
treason, you will never hear a word of hatred, 
but an indulgence is shown which amazes one. 
John Bull even smites his breast and confesses 
humbly that, to tell the truth, he has never been 
able to govern this people. But the actual Irish 
mentality is so foreign to him that he still 
dreams of being able to arrange matters by logic 
and common sense. He often says to you, and 
believes it, that everything will settle itself, the 
Irish cannot really be as unreasonable as they 



Sometimes the English go the greatest lengths 
238 



CONCLUSIONS AND FORECASTS 239 

in making concessions in order to reach a com- 
promise, but there must be two to make a bar- 
gain. Read leading articles in the big news- 
papers, speeches of party leaders, books by the 
best critics, and you will see that the subject al- 
ways closes on an optimistic note. This confi- 
dence in the future, in spite of what has gone be- 
fore, seems rather forced when one has just con- 
sidered the long and troublesome history of Irish 
obstinacy and paradox. Like Ulster, I for one 
do not share it. 

Sir Horace Plunkett, in presenting his report 
to the Prime Minister, closes his letter with 
these words: 

"The Convention has therefore laid a founda- 
tion of Irish agreement unprecedented in his- 
tory. . . . Notwithstanding the difficulties with 
which we were surrounded, a larger measure of 
agreement has been reached upon the principles 
and details of Irish self-government than has 
ever yet been attained." 

It is very misleading. One can understand 
that Sir Horace should wish to feel that he had 
not worked in vain; but in spite of all the re- 
spect which his intentions and loyalty deserve, 
one must admit that his own summary does not 
justify such conclusions. The Convention had 
not to obtain England's consent to Home Rule, 



240 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

for that had already been given subject to cer- 
tain safeguards and the exclusion of Ulster. But 
on the other hand it had to convert Ulster to the 
new dogma of Irish Unity; instead of which it 
made her more suspicious and more hostile than 
ever by justifying all her suspicions. Can one 
say under these circumstances that they were 
any nearer coming to an understanding? 

This is a brief analysis of the final vote of the 
Convention. On April 5th, 1918, there were 
ninety delegates ; forty-four voted for the Report 
^— that is, less than half. All the Catholic 
Bishops present voted against it, as also did Mr. 
Devlin, M.P., and Mr. W. Murphy, whose influ- 
ence was considerable. Among the forty-four 
there were eleven Southern Unionists; Lord 
Midleton has since recanted in their name, assert- 
ing that in view of the ill-feeling now paramount 
in Ireland no Unionist would now venture to 
attempt Home Rule. The forty-four also in- 
cluded a certain number of Nationalist Chairmen 
of County Councils ; their own press now treats 
them as "defeatists" for having appeared to grant 
concessions, and Sinn Fein has undertaken to 
punish them by making them lose their seats. 
Seven of them have already been removed by 
these means in two months. An eighth was only 
enabled to keep his place by a casting vote — his 
own. Let us therefore subtract eleven Union- 



CONCLUSIONS AND FOEECASTS 241 

ists and seven delegates who have been disowned 
and reduced to silence: there remain twenty-six 
signatories of the Keport as against twenty-nine 
opponents. Can we call that a substantial agree- 
ment and reckon upon it in future legislation? 
Besides, of what consequence are these con- 
sultations of legislators and theorists? what does 
it matter if they are agreed if their supporters 
never ratify their signature? These supporters 
answer for no one, it will be said, they do not 
represent Ireland. John Kedmond was "an- 
swerable" for Ireland ; what notice was taken of 
his leading principles? Who, then, represents 
Ireland? That recalls to my mind a correspond- 
ent in The Times who wished to show indulgence 
to the nation and not judge it by this class or 
that ; according to him no notice should be taken 
of these mistaken people who did not represent 
the true Ireland — pretentious, half-educated ar- 
tisans, idle, quarrelsome young men, shop girls 
led away to sedition by sentimentalism, sincere 
enthusiasts. . . . But if you choose, sincere en- 
thusiasts may mean a whole nation. Add to 
these politicians of every calibre, from town and 
country, priests, teachers, publicans, etc. . . . 
What is there left? 

What have we to do with all this, and does it 
concern us Frenchmen and Belgians? 



242 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

Ireland was one of the first to bring forward 
her claims as an international question ; she has 
therefore given us the right to judge her. She 
has made great capital out of, and reaped many 
benefits from foreign sympathies, and she can 
hardly complain if we ask to verify her title- 
deeds and her references. 

Above all, in this matter of foreign sympathies, 
the Irish are very proud of the support of their 
American and colonial cousins. At bottom, the 
fact that the Irish in Australia or America es- 
pouse the quarrel of their former home is too 
natural and would not have any great moral im- 
portance, if all that did not add fresh fuel to the 
fire of legends and mystification. Thus when 
American Cardinals appeal to our pity for "Irish 
distress" which no longer exists, it is as well to 
put our people on their guard. 

On his return from a tour among his oversea 
compatriots, Mr. T. P. O'Connor, the Nationalist 
member, raised this cry of alarm: "Never was 
feeling more bitter — I might almost say so fren- 
zied and anti-English among my countrymen in 
America as it is now." 

That may be so; but nothing justifies it; it is 
hallucination, pure and simple, or blind hatred; 
and if that is to be perpetuated one would de- 
spair not only of the famous League of Nations, 
but of the common sense of humanity. 



CONCLUSIONS AND FORECASTS 243 

But though they are numerous and influential, 
there are other people besides Irishmen in the 
United States. I might almost go so far as to 
say that all the Irish there are not so mad. 

But apart from sentiment one often hears over 
there quite unfounded statements on Irish mat- 
ters. The American whom Erin calls as a wit- 
ness at every other moment genuinely believes, 
or did believe, all the fables about Ireland be- 
ing oppressed, exploited, enslaved, etc. He is 
equally mistaken about the remedies to be ap- 
plied, as The Times proved by its inquiry in 
April, 1917. The replies of all the people inter- 
viewed have the same refrain : the Irish question 
must be settled! They do not say how, or else 
— what is not worth much more — they think that 
by some magic formula they can sweep away ob- 
stacles which are centuries old and cannot be got 
over. Some ignore Ulster completely, others as- 
sert light-heartedly that she must submit. Many 
of them borrow analogies from their own history 
and their own American Constitution like the 
following : 

"Why does England object to give Ireland sat- 
isfaction? Did our Union suffer by leaving each 
State its own legislature?" 

Then what about federalism? In England, 
too, one hears a great deal about federalism in 



244 JKELAND— AN ENEMY? 

a certain school which finds in it a panacea for 
an overgrown body. The word is very fashion- 
able, but the thing itself is ill-defined ; the news- 
papers are filled with letters from zealous per- 
sons pointing out the urgency of this reform 
which is as vague as it is indispensable according 
to them, which will settle every vexed question, 
beginning with Ireland. Of what use is it to 
indulge in this chimera? It shows complete mis- 
understandings of the demands of Nationalist 
Ireland. What Sinn Fein and even Dillon want 
is not that, it is integral separation, the very se- 
cession of which the United States has such a 
poignant memory. 

"We cannot admit the separation of Ulster 
from Ireland any more than we could consent to 
detach South Carolina from our Union." 

Then, why wish to detach Ireland from her 
present Union? There would be a much closer 
analogy in the example of Virginia. When this 
State decided on May 23rd, 1861, to secede from 
the Union, the districts situated to the west of 
the Alleghany Mountains refused to have any- 
thing to do with this separation, and claimed the 
right to form a new and distinct State, West 
Virginia, which was officially admitted to the 
Union in June, 1863. Has not Ulster got in 
that a very formidable precedent? 



CONCLUSIONS AND FORECASTS 245 

'^Ulster's fears are hysterical and ridiculous. 
Our Southerners were afraid, too, that they 
would be oppressed by the North, and see how 
mistaken they were." 

You might as well compare Dillon to Lincoln I 
Lincoln, whose memory is now revered by all de- 
mocracies. 

Those who want conciliation at any price all 
say precisely the same thing to Ulster : "You are 
wrong to be alarmed, to look too much to the 
past, to nurse your jealous hatred, etc. . . ." It 
is word for word what we have been reproaching 
Nationalist Ireland for doing, but with this dif- 
ference : the wrongs of Ireland have disappeared, 
the damage has been made good, the debts have 
been paid; those of Ulster are unfortunately in 
the present and yet to come — only too much so. 
If the people of Belfast wished to forget past 
history, they would have daily reminders in the 
words and deeds of the Irish of 1914, 1916, and 
1918. Can we blame them for seeing therein 
more threats than promises? 

Moreover, the Americans since they have be- 
come our Allies, and have had to suffer with us 
from the ill-timed jests of the Irish, begin to see 
matters in a clearer light. For the last year 
there have been various little ill-omened inci- 
dents, insults to President Wilson, the Stars and 
Stripes trampled in the mud, and so on. Uncle 



246 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

Sam was not expecting anything of that sort, 
and he is beginning to ask himself at last if Eng- 
land really is the guilty party or whether Ire- 
land is simply cross-grained and ungovernable. 
I believe that he is getting nearer to the truth 
and that soon the Martyred Isle will have one 
dupe the less. 

When a few more Americans have passed 
through Ireland, when there have been a few 
troops in camp, when the boys from New Jersey 
have seen this poor tragedy queen a little closer 
at hand, we may be certain of one thing; they 
will soon change their opinions of the tales told 
by their cardinals or Tammany's electoral 
agents. They will see Ireland petted and cos- 
seted, rather foolishly exempted by England 
from all the burdens of the war, even from the 
small food and other restrictions which all the 
Allies have had to impose upon themselves. The 
little colleen with the red shawl and green skirt 
has become the spoilt child of her stepmother; 
no conscription, no increase in railway fares, 1 
no stoppage of race meetings, no limit on petrol, 
and so on. While their mothers in Boston and 
Chicago are rationing themselves voluntarily in 
order to help us to stand fast, they will see Sinn 
Fein forbidding farmers to export pigs or but- 

1 In Ireland these were increased by 50 per cent, in May, 
1918, while in England this was done two years before. 



CONCLUSIONS AND FORECASTS 247 

ter to England. In short, they will see that 
when they were told that Ireland was to be pit- 
ied they were told lies. 

When the Irish try, in spite of all, to make 
them believe it still, they will ask themselves as 
we have : what can be done to satisfy people like 
this? Neither England nor anybody else will 
ever satisfy Ireland. Recrimination has become 
second nature and she plays the martyr with 
consummate art, without realizing that we have 
already seen the performance and that her act- 
ing impresses us less in consequence. "The best 
way to overcome pain," said one of the Fathers 
of the Church, "is not to love it." Go and say 
that to Ireland, take away her halo and deprive 
her of the profit she makes out of it! Ireland 
is in distress out of habit. 

The gentle poet Edmund Spenser said it to 
her three hundred years ago in these prophetic 
lines : "Marry, there have been divers good plots 
devised and wise counsels cast already about the 
reformation of that realm ; but they say it is the 
fatal destiny of that land that no purposes what- 
soever which are meant for her good, will pros- 
per and take good effect." 

The English, who are so fortunate and so skill- 
ful in their other colonies, have often been re- 
proached with their failure in this case. But 
does not the very fact that they have succeeded 



248 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

everywhere else show that they are not primarily 
responsible for the Irish muddle? Matthew Ar- 
nold used to complain of this British habit, ac- 
cording to him the most serious obstacle to the 
good fellowship of the two islands — that of 
adopting a conventional point of view, of being 
satisfied with it and instantly expecting others 
to be satisfied with it likewise. That may be: 
but why not apply that to Ireland? Why sacri- 
fice the principles and practices of Government 
which have been proved satisfactory in an im- 
mense empire with most diverse races, in the 
greatest administrative experiment which has 
ever been made? Why sacrifice the mature po- 
litical experience of 40,000,000 Anglo-Saxons 
and Scots to the paradoxes of 3,500,000 Irish? 
As for knowing whether they are paradoxes, and 
where common sense is to be found, I leave that 
to the reader to judge after what he has just 
read. 

L. G. Eedmond-Howard is pleased to quote a 
remark by W. T. Stead, the celebrated journal- 
ist since drowned in the Titanic disaster: "We 
have made every mistake possible as a ruling 
race in Ireland. We shall never keep our Em- 
pire by force like Ireland." True, the British 
Empire does not depend upon its heavy artillery, 
and that is the very reason why the Germans, 
short-sighted psychologists that they are, never 



CONCLUSIONS AND FORECASTS 249 

could understand its solidity. Stead might have 
spared himself the trouble of giving England this 
piece of advice, for she has wisely acted on this 
principle for more than a century — since her 
misfortune with America and the stern lessons 
learnt from George Washington. Then why has 
Ireland still to be periodically broken in? Be- 
cause other methods — has not everything been 
tried? — come to nothing, because madmen can- 
not be tamed. 

Let us take one case out of a thousand. Ten 
years ago the Irish were moaning because they 
had no recognized Catholic University. They 
wanted one which should be both free as regards 
its teaching and subsidized by that enemy whose 
money alone is acceptable to them. They were 
given what they asked. The consequences were 
predicted by men who were at that time accused 
of religious or political intolerance, but whose 
forecasts were soon realized: the National Uni- 
versity is the most dangerous hotbed of con- 
spiracies, revolts, of the whole seditious propa- 
ganda. Many of its professors are section lead- 
ers of Sinn Fein ; Professor MacNeill divides his 
time between lectures on the Gaelic language and 
manuals of tactics, fortification, and so on for 
the use of the rebels. The students who leave 
the National University sow the seeds of re- 
bellion, and, since the instruction of the whole 



250 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

nation is in their hands, the harvest will be rich ; 
in the national schools of Ireland, small and 
great, primary or secondary, nothing is tanght 
but hatred, hatred, and yet more hatred. 

Mr. Redmond had described eloquently the 
benefits of a higher education which, while re- 
specting religious scruples, would create more 
enlightened and more law-abiding ruling classes. 
Cassandra shrugged her shoulders and sneered 
. . . and Cassandra was right. 

Before accepting the Chief Secretaryship of 
Ireland, Mr. Duke said to his electors at Exe- 
ter: "Only two courses are open — coercion or 
an amicable agreement." * 

And in spite of the disaster of his immediate 
predecessor, Mr. Birrell, he wanted to venture 
upon showing more leniency, release the prison- 
ers, moderate stringent police regulations, shut 
his eyes to the agitation of the Irish. That 
lasted for two years, a last respite to calm Na- 
tionalist fever — and here we are in delirium, 
worse than ever. Mr. Duke had to be replaced 
by Field-Marshal Lord French and martial law 
had to be rigidly enforced. 

We are still far from Home Rule! First of 
all, the state of feeling in which it would have 
now to be applied would, with the best inten- 
tly 15th, 1916. 



CONCLUSIONS AND FORECASTS 251 

tions, make its failure certain. The Daily News 
in June, 1918, wrote : "The election of a Home 
Rule Parliament now is practically impossible 
from the point of view of British statesmanship, 
because it would create a Parliament with an 
overwhelming separatist majority. Such a Par- 
liament would have to be dissolved almost as 
soon as it began to sit." 

Then again, if British statesmen and public 
opinion have been very indulgent and very gen- 
erous towards Ireland for the last fifty years, 
the way in which they have been rewarded will 
bring us once more to the inevitable and recur- 
rent reaction. The Irish have never tried to 
conciliate England, but have exasperated her, 
and in spite of that, her self-denial, raising her 
above petty considerations, has led her to adopt 
altruistic courses, and to sacrifice many of her 
own interests in order to appease Celtic neu- 
rosis. So little was needed to obtain from Eng- 
land Home Rule in Ireland as elsewhere, since 
she has granted it so sensibly to her young Do- 
minions — not even gratitude, only a little tact 
and common sense. She has never been given 
anything but hatred in return for what she has 
done. 

Concessions are refused, victory is desired; 
Irish hatred demands s victim and has had wild 
schemes for undermining the columns of the 



252 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

magnificent Imperial structure. Now the best 
and surest way to hurt England to-day is to join 
hands with the hateful brood whose way she 
bars, and whose foul debauchery she stamps un- 
derfoot. Ireland did not hesitate; she threw 
herself into those bloody arms with the same ar- 
dor as the paralytic of Constantinople and the 
loathsome Ferdinand of Bulgaria. She is at 
liberty to find her ideal there, but it is for us to 
guard our own, the ideal of Right and Justice, 
written with capitals. It is for us to see what 
that Irish victory would signify to-morrow if it 
were helped by our sympathy: after the follow- 
ing confessions we should be foolish indeed if 
we were to err in the matter. 

Since the war a Germano-Irish Society has 
been founded at Berlin, under the august 
patronage of the Chancellor von Bethmann- 
Hollweg ; we can guess its aims and its disinter- 
ested motives. It has three Presidents, includ- 
ing von Schorlemer, the Prussian Minister of 
Agriculture, and Dr. Kuno Meyer, former Pro- 
fessor at Dublin University, who initiates it into 
the mysteries of Celtic Kultur and into the 
gloomy beauties of Gaelic folklore. It is all very 
innocent. But as the secret funds of the Aus- 
wartiges Amt are not frittered away in trifles, 
the Society devotes itself to more fruitful ap- 
plications of Weltpolitik. According to the 



CONCLUSIONS AND FOKECASTS 253 

Kolnische Zeitung it dispatched in March, 1918, 
some edifying telegrams. 

To Hindenburg the superman: 

"Filled with the conviction that a free Ireland, 
independent of England, will guarantee the free- 
dom of the seas, and thereby the liberation of 
the world from English sea-tyranny, we hope for 
a strong German peace, which can alone create 
real guarantees for Germany and for Ireland." 

To the pious Count Hertling : 

"The independence of Ireland is the real guar- 
antee for the freedom of the seas from the An- 
glo-Saxon yoke — the freedom which is longed for 
unanimously, not only by the whole German peo- 
ple, but by all peoples." * 

A few days later, on St. Patrick's day, the So- 
ciety gave a banquet at the Hotel Adlon, and 
the Wilhelmstrasse sent as its representative one 
Herr von Stumm, who made a long speech on 
the theme of the above telegrams. When Ad- 
miral von Hintze took office after Kuhlmann's 
hurried retirement, he promised the same "lib- 
eration" in his famous confidence to the ex- 
Khedive : chivalrous Germany is fighting only to 
save those two oppressed sisters, Egypt and Ire- 
land, from England's grasp! 

1 The Times, March 15th, 1918, "Through German Eyes." 



254 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

After these official benedictions, we know 
henceforth what to expect of what Germany 
means by the independence of Ireland. It is 
more than enough to justify the chief argument 
of Anglo-Irish Unionists, the strategic argument. 
It is no longer very fashionable, I know; men 
prefer the idealism of the platform, Bolshevist 
candor, or the angelic formula of the Reichstag, 
"no annexations, no indemnities." It is no 
longer admitted that any people should be al- 
lowed to exist under a yoke of which it disap- 
proves. Granted. But there is such a thing as 
a right to legitimate self-defense for nations as 
for individuals, and for great nations as well as 
for small. 

Let us suppose that England renounces her 
historical rights, her prescriptive titles, and law- 
ful sovereignty. Let us suppose the impossible, 
that Ireland consents to the exclusion of Ulster. 
She would not be content for long with self-gov- 
ernment under Imperial supremacy; she would 
at once demand absolute separation: we know 
it, she has said so often enough and proved it by 
repudiating those who brought her Home Rule at 
last. 

This absolute separation is inadmissible, and 
why? Because Ireland would be an intolerable 
menace to the neighboring island. An economic 
menace; we have lately seen her Customs 



CONCLUSIONS AND FORECASTS 255 

schemes. A military menace; Germany and 
Sinn Fein will see to that. 

At the close of the Congress of Friends of Irish 
Liberty at New York, John Devoy, one of those 
heroes or martyrs to whom the municipal coun- 
cils of Ireland send moving addresses every year, 
a former dynamiter and jail-bird, stated that 
Ireland would continue to threaten the British 
Empire as long as there was a British Empire 
— and that would not be long. 

That was said quite recently, May 19th, 1918. 
When a people has such wild men as spokesmen 
and refuses to contradict them — far from that, 
loads them with honors — when an Empire hears 
itself threatened in this manner, can you won- 
der that stern measures are taken? So much 
the worse for the principle of nationalities! If 
you go to Dublin you will read at the foot of 
ParnelFs monument: "No man has a right to 
fix the boundary to the march of a nation. No 
man has a right to say to his country : thus far 
shalt thou go and no farther. We have never at- 
tempted to &x the ne plus ultra to the progress 
of Irish nationhood, and we never shall." 
Treitschke, Bernhardi, William II, could not im- 
prove upon that. 

No right to fix a boundary? I beg your par- 
don, my poor friend, the right of neighbors, the 
right of Ulster, the security of Great Britain 



256 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

and that Empire which you stand on your honor 
to threaten. Your formula is a lie — we our- 
selves — you must change that, you are not the 
only people in the world, and great empires have 
the right occasionally to the same safeguards as 
a small nation which is too infuriated and too 
aggressive. 

• ••••• 

All Irish Nationalism is vitiated by these two 
emanations — a hateful spite which will never be 
satisfied without England's humiliation, and a 
ruthless egoism. 

Ah! that egoism! in its very title Sinn Fein 
glories in it. It has two corollaries: astonish- 
ing vanity, and crass ignorance of all outside 
matters. Just as in the fifth century she con- 
ceived the monastic regime, so now Ireland still 
delights to live in a moral seclusion. Roman 
Catholic discipline, ever intent upon avoiding 
the slightest contact with heresy in any of its 
forms, men, ideas, or institutions, has given 
hearty support to this isolation. When pro- 
nouncing a panegyric upon the too famous 
O'Dwyer, Monsignor Fogarty, Bishop of Killa- 
loe, thinking that he was paying the highest 
tribute to his vindictive colleague, said: "For 
him there was only one country in the world, 
and that was Ireland — no lakes, no mountains, 
no people as grand as hers. He never took a va- 



CONCLUSIONS AND FORECAST? 257 

cation outside her shores; he never wor/a suit 
of clothes that was not made in Irelano and if 
possible in Limerick." / 

Truly, that explains somewhat narriv views 
on world-events! This is the man fho pre- 
sumed to criticize the diplomacy of powning 
Street. Erin lives too much aloof, geograph- 
ically and morally, "on the edge of beypl." She 
battens too much on her bitter memorp and na- 
tional hallucinations, on her history /alsified by 
fanaticism and intolerance. She dqfs not con- 
trol her auto-suggestions; points of (Comparison 
are missing ; like the Bishop of Limeick she pre- 
fers to ignore the other world, our^/orld. But 
to add to her folly, and this is whe/e her vanity 
comes in, she thinks that the eye? <tf the whole 
world are on her, admiring her, pitying her, ap- 
plauding her. What would you? All her ora- 
tors tell her so. 

Vanity ! We are told that towards the end of 
the rebellion of 1916, in a village near Dublin, 
Swords, two hundred Sinn Feiners, barricaded 
in an old convent, wanted to surrender. Un- 
fortunately so little notice had been taken of 
their heroism until then that there was no one to 
receive their submission except two local police- 
men. Mortified at the idea of going through the 
village under this escort, our warriors themselves 
telephoned to the nearest barracks to demand a 



258 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

respetable force, and two hours later the two 
hundrd were able to march between two dozen 
genuin bayonets: national pride was saved. 

Irelaid to-day is flattering her vanity by an- 
other bight idea: she thinks she is the ulcer 
which heating into the old British carcass. Ap- 
parentlythat consoles her completely for the loss 
of many friendships of which she was proud. 
People taie their happiness where they can, but 
the poor creature is mistaken once again. la 
John Bullaot in good form, looking very healthy, 
and more igorous than ever? Has he a malig- 
nant tumtf? Nonsense — nothing more than a 
wart. 

What is go ig to happen now? Let us beware 
of official oratons whose perorations are always 
so sickly swee;. Here is a choice specimen — 
Mr. Shortt is speaking, the new Chief Secretary 
for Ireland : " n hese are all German plots. . . . 
Ireland — I meai the great true heart of the 
Irish people — is not responsible for what the 
Germans do and is not responsible for what the 
two or three hundred extremists in Ireland do. 
Ireland I believe is sound at the core to-day." 

You would hardly believe, as you read this, 
that the most auti ioritative spokesmen and the 
most effective representatives of the people, the 
national clergy, led by their bishops, had, not a 



CONCLUSIONS AND FORECASTS 259 

month before, forbidden conscription to the faith- 
ful from the pulpits ; offering for this beautiful 
"intention" a Mass as solemn as it was blas- 
phemous in all churches on April 21st, 1918, a 
Mass followed by a great collective oath in the 
presence of the Holy Sacrament ; collecting every 
Sunday funds for resistance, and advising their 
terrorized flocks "under penalties of eternal 
damnation to resist conscription to the utter- 
most." 1 

1 Official statement by Lord Curzon in the name of the Gov- 
ernment, House of Lords, June 20th, 1918. Here are some 
quotations in defense of his statement published in his letter 
to The Times and Morning Pos$ of June 27th, 1918: 

"On Sunday, April 21st, 1918, at a meeting after Mass at 
Castletownbere, held to protest against conscription, the Rev. 
Charles Brennan, C.C., said they should resist it, that they 
should all approach the sacraments and be ready to die in their 
resistance, and that dying in their resistance they would die 
with the full blessing of God and the Church upon them. If 
they (the police) enforced it the people should kill them the 
same as they would kill any man who would attempt to take 
away from them their lives, and that the police had no right 
to their lives if they came to arrest any Irishman under the 
Conscription Act. ... If the soldiers did attempt to enforce 
conscription they should be treated in the same way as the 
police. When the police and military would die in enforcing 
the Act — as die they would should they attempt to enforce it — 
they would die enemies of God, whilst the people would die at 
peace with God and under His blessing and that of the Church. 

"On April 21st, 1918, the Rev. Father Lynch, addressing 
the congregation in Ryehill Roman Catholic Church, said 'Do 
ye resist conscription by every means in your power; any 



260 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

For instance, the constable or policeman who 
wanted to arrest a shirker, or who posted up a 

minion of the English Government who shoots one of you, 
especially if he is a Roman Catholic, is guilty of mortal sin, 
and God will cry to Heaven for vengeance.' 

"On April 21st, 1918, the Rev. Father Murphy, C.C., ad- 
dressing the congregation in Kilgarvan Roman Catholic Chapel, 
said that any Irishman who assisted the Government to enforce 
conscription in Ireland, as well as being a traitor to his coun- 
try, is morally committing a sin against the law of God. 

"On April 21st, 1918, the Rev. James Mclnerney, at Mass, 
Scarriff, said: 'No Roman Catholic Irishman, no matter what 
position he held, could assist in the enforcement of conscrip- 
tion iL this country without being a renegade to his faith.' 

"On April 21st, 1918, the Rev. Father Donnelly Murrough 
said: 'Those who were the means of enforcing it were guilty 
of a mortal sin because they had no legal right to put such an 
Act in force against the wishes of the Irish people.' 

"On April 28th, 1918, Father O'Callaghan after Mass, Killy- 
clogher, said: 'If any conscription is enforced, any policeman 
who assists in any way in enforcing it is guilty of murder and 
can never get absolution. 5 

"On April 28th, 1918, Father Murphy, at Divine Service at 
Killenent Roman Catholic Church, said: 'On last Sunday I 
asked the police to throw off their jackets from a moral point 
of view as they were Nationalists and Irishmen with the same 
Irish blood through their veins, but to-day I ask them from a 
spiritual point of view to do so, because all Irishmen are asked 
by the Irish Hierarchy not to do anything to facilitate con- 
scription, and that if any policeman went out to force Irish- 
men to join the English army and was shot when doing so, 
he would le damned in hell, even though he may be in the 
state of gr&,ce that morning.' 

"The Rev. Gerald Dennehy, C.C., of Eyries, County Cork, 
told about three hundred men who received the sacrament in 
his chapel that any Catholic policeman or agent of the Gov- 



CONCLUSIONS AND FORECASTS 261 

recruiting list, would be damned. Do not smile ; 
95 per cent of the Irish police are Roman Catho- 
lics and have to respect these priests of theirs. 

Sir Edward Carson replied to Mr. Shortt: 

"My right honorable friend looks forward with 
great hopes to the settlement of Ireland during 
his regime. I earnestly hope that he may suc- 
ceed. It has been the aspiration of innumerable 
Chief Secretaries who have long since been for- 
gotten." (Laughter!) 1 

Optimism by order — chaff before the wind. 
Do not let us be led away any more by minis- 
terial rhetoric. 

Now just hold your head and try to resolve 
this conundrum, and tell me how you could dare 
to reckon upon the settlement of Ireland? In 
view of the physical impossibility of applying 
conscription, the Government promised through 
Lord French, the new Viceroy, that every Irish 
volunteer would be given a holding of land on 
his return home. Now the land of Ireland is al- 

ernment who assisted in putting conscription in force would be 
excommunicated and cursed by the Roman Catholic Church; 
the curse of God would follow them in every land; and he 
asked his hearers to kill them at sight; they would be blessed 
by God, and this would be The most acceptable sacrifice that 
could be offered." 

Is it surprising that The Times asked if that was indeed the 
mission of the Catholic clergy? 

1 House of Commons, June 25th, 1918. 



262 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

ready claimed by farmers and tenants. We know 
the ideas the countryfolk hold as to their right of 
occupation, their bad feeling, etc. ; they would 
not stand being supplanted and replaced by ri- 
vals, the land belongs to them. In France we 
have seen the most amenable peasant grow fierce 
in similar cases. In Ireland, where men are 
violent by nature, we must add to this conten- 
tion, which is common to all countries, the ef- 
fect of a whole century of agrarian agitation and 
organized crimes, of which we have said quite 
enough. elsewhere. If there is one matter which 
the Irish do take seriously, that is the one. 

The farmers' sons are the very people who will 
not fight; the farmers will not have their sons 
taken at any price, for they treasure them jeal- 
ously as heirs presumptive to Irish soil, soon to 
benefit by land purchase, with the alluring fruits 
of the promised land almost within their grasp. 
Are these fruits to be snatched from them to be 
given away? And given to whom? To those 
whom national opinion has sworn to execrate, 
and to pay out; to those hateful renegades, 
"traitors to Ireland," who have gone to serve 
the cause of hell ; to those wretches in khaki who 
were shot remorselessly, like rats, with contempt 
and disgust, in the streets of Dublin on Easter 
Monday, 1916. 

Does it seem only fair to you, reader, that those 



CONCLUSIONS AND FOKECASTS 263 

who volunteered for the war should be rewarded? 
Ah, you do not understand Irish logic. . . . Are 
you possibly as stupid as the Britons who never, 
understand Ireland? 

But have patience, you will soon learn to know 
her. Let them but come to take their blood- 
money, these unspeakable creatures, new land- 
thieves, after the manner of Cromwell's soldiers, 
and the Irish will soon let them know of what 
stuff they are made. The thatched roofs will be 
set alight as if by magic (for magic plays a large 
part in Celtic superstition), the small-holder's 
cow will stray mysteriously into a bog-hole on 
some fine moonlight night. That will last for 
fifty years if necessary, but it shall not be said 
that one man disabled in the great war will have 
stolen with impunity their rights from our hon- 
est farmers' sons. 

Peace in Ireland? Let us hope for it — but 
do not let us be so fatuous as to count much on 
it. Let us be prepared for fatal but natural 
reaction. Will the mark be overstepped? Pos- 
sibly, and after what we have just read the Eng- 
lish must be somewhat excused if they lose their 
calm. We know that they never do so unless 
provocations are excessive, but how should we 
like to hear chuckles of delight in our rear at 
every reverse while we were weeping for our glo- 



264 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

rious dead? We should see red — and John Bull 
has a heart the same as we have. 

Will Ulster become more confirmed in her in- 
tolerance towards her Eoman Catholic neigh- 
bors? It is unfortunate, but has she not been 
given the best of reasons for being so? She has 
never seen around her the best side of the Ro- 
man hierarchy; the priests and bishops whom 
she knows and heai-k cw a ib&jti&s&mi inciters to 
sedition, daily compromising their spiritual mis- 
sion in order to serve blind passions or the in- 
terests of the parish pump. 

And as for political solutions properly so- 
called, which innumerable Chief Secretaries pur- 
sue with such touching constancy according to 
the exigencies of their office, I reckon nothing 
to them either. Do you call this a negative con- 
clusion, obstructionist, sterile? I know it full 
well, but one has sometimes to take a negative 
view knowingly. I do not believe in a peaceable 
solution of the Irish problem, and I have stated 
my reasons over and over again. The Irish 
want reparation for colonization carried out in 
the distant past upon a race which was then 
backward and brutish, but which has since devel- 
oped ; reparation means abolition of the fruits of 
colonization, and the expulsion of the colonists, 
or, which would be worse, submission to the na- 
tives. This raises the question of the legitimacy 



CONCLUSIONS AND FORECASTS 265 

of colonization throughout the whole world. It 
is impossible. Do not let us seek for the impos- 
sible. 

But for all that the Irish question will remain 
an acute and ever-present problem. It will cer- 
tainly continue to be one of the favorite trump 
cards of English political parties, and a century 
hence some one will probably repeat Lord Rose- 
bery's aphorism, "The Irish question has never 
passed into history because it has never passed 
out of politics." * 

English Governments will still try to content 
Ireland with Home Rule in one form or another, 
with which no one will be satisfied. The com- 
bination will never last, especially if they try to 
make an explosive mixture the danger of which 
Ulster has already scented. Perhaps one day 
at some moment when nerves are soothed and 
passions slumbering, if the Almighty ever per- 
mits such a thing to occur in Ireland, they will 
manage to deceive each other, flout Ulster or 
extract more serious safeguards from the Na- 
tionalists. But how long would you expect that 
to last? With such temperaments there can be 
only one issue — civil war, inevitably. 

Or perhaps they will contrive, as a result of 
the events of the last ten years, to come to the 
following modus vivendi: 

1 Pitt, chapter xi. 



266 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

Give Home Rule to Roman Catholic Ireland. 
Exclude the north-east of Ulster. Define clearly 
military, economic, and political safeguards, 
without which the Empire cannot exist, or she 
will go to her doom. Ireland would be dissat- 
isfied with this regime, that I need hardly say. 
There will be nothing to be done but let her 
howl. She will then attempt another rising — 
and perhaps she will have to be brought to rea- 
son more or less harshly, more or less brutally. 
She will howl louder than ever. 

Then we shall remember what we have just 
read, we shall know where our sympathies should 
go, we shall take care not to misplace or prosti- 
tute them once again. 

If it be true that the policy of Great Britain 
in Ireland is incoherent it is partly our fault. 
If English Governments hesitate so long before 
showing the iron hand, or only make up their 
minds to do so when it is too late, it is because 
they have been looking too much our way, too 
careful of what we might say, too anxious about 
our criticisms. They have not all Pitt's power 
and fine moral assurance; and then the English 
Radicals, having interfered with other people's 
business a great deal in the nineteenth century, 
have nowadays to submit to this counterblast. 
Their hands are no longer free; they are afraid 
of upsetting our ill-informed public opinion, and 



CONCLUSIONS AND FORECASTS 267 

of getting oversea Irishmen on their shoulders 
—1,000,000 in Australia, 1,000,000 in Canada, 
16,000,000 in the United States— -very influential 
in those young republics whose susceptibilities 
Old England is so anxious — and rightly so — not 
to offend. As Wu Ting Fang, the former Chi- 
nese ambassador at Washington, used to say, 
"The only two countries in the world where I 
should like to live are China and Ireland: they 
are the only two countries where the Irish do not 
rule." English Ministers have been obliged to 
take it into account, and their Irish policy has 
often been warped by it. 

Let us then enlighten our public opinion, and 
do not let us be taken in any more in the future. 
England will one day have, very unwillingly, to 
call for her lictors and restore order: Pax Bri- 
tannica! Do not let us disturb it by encourag- 
ing with our pity those fraudulent beggars who 
do not deserve it. 

Perhaps the opportunity will come very soon, 
if it is decided to hear Ireland's cause at the 
Peace Conference after the cries of distress of 
other small nationalities. We will begin by re- 
minding her of what Casement said to his coun- 
trymen: "Irishmen . . . you have fought for 
Belgium in England's interest, though it was no 
more to you than the Fiji Islands." 

That can be turned round. 



268 IRELAND— AN ENEMY? 

On which side of the green table will Erin take 
her place? Her new motto, translated into good 
Gaelic by Kuno Meyer, would seem to give us 
the clew: 

"A Dhia saor Eirinn agus Almain ! God save 
Ireland and Germany !" 

Which God? William the Second's old God? 
Much good may he do them. Let those cronies 
disentangle their intrigue, and do not let us un- 
dertake the job. The Irish reserve their right to 
fight for their national ideal. But an ideal 
which includes an alliance with Germany and 
remains deaf to all the great altruisms of our 
cause does not seem to us greatly to be recom- 
mended. 

That chatterbox Meyer, in a speech at Cologne, 
last April, promised Germany's gratitude to Ire- 
land for her hostility to England during the war, 
thus immobilizing an army, partly in Ireland, 
partly in England, in view of Irish risings. The 
German professor spoke the truth, and we have 
neither to rejoice over the matter nor to thank 
Ireland: she tried to stab us in the back — John 
Redmond's words — and it would be intolerable 
if she were to profit thereby. 

THE END 



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